PROCEEDINGS  IN  CONGRESS 


UPOS  THE  ACCEPTANCE  OF 


THE  STATUE  OF  LEWIS  CASS 


THE  STATE  OF  MICHIGAN 


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LIBRARY 

OK  THI: 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 


Received  IC^VLU 

Accession  No.  Class  No. 


v,v 


PROCEEDINGS  IN  CONGRESS 


UPON   THE   ACCEPTANCE   OF 


PRESENTED     BY 


"^  •*•* 

Of  IM 

U1IV1RSIT7 


WASHINGTON : 

GOVERNMENT    PRINTING    OFFICE. 
1889. 


Joint  resolution  to  authorize  the  printing  of  the  proceedings  in  Congress  in  ac 
cepting  the  statue  of  the  late  Lewis  Cass,  an  illustrious  citizen,  presented  by  the 
State  of  Michigan,  and  the  statues  of  the  late  Major-General  John  Peter  Gabriel 
Muhlenberg  and  Robert  Fulton,  illustrious  citizens,  presented  by  the  State  of 
Pennsylvania. 

Resolved  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United 
States  of  America  in  Congress  assembled,  That  there  be  printed  of  the 
proceedings  in  Congress  upon  the  acceptance  of  the  statue  of  the  late 
Lewis  Cass,  presented  by  the  State  of  Michigan,  twelve  thousand  five 
hundred  copies,  of  which  three  thousand  shall  be  for  the  use  of  the 
Senate  and  nine  thousand  five  hundred  copies  for  the  use  of  the  House 
of  Representatives,  and  in  a  separate  volume;  that  there  be  printed 
of  the  proceedings  in  Congress  upon  the  acceptance  of  the  statue?  of 
the  late  John  Peter  Gabriel  Muhlenberg  and  Robert  Fulton,  presented 
by  the  State  of  Pennsylvania,  twelve  thousand  five  hundred  copies, 
of  which  three  thousand  shall  be  for  the  use  of  the  Senate  and  nine 
thousand  five  hundred  for  the  use  of  the  House  of  Representatives; 
and  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  is  hereby  directed  to  have  printed 
engravings  of  said  statues  to  accompany  said  proceedings ;  and  for 
engraving  and  printing  said  pictures  the  sum  of  one  thousand  five 
hundred  dollars,  or  so  much  as  may  be  necessary,  is  hereby  appro 
priated  out  of  any  money  in  the  Treasury  not  otherwise  appropriated. 

Approved,  March  2,  1889. 

2 


ACCEPTANCE  OF  THE  STAfUE.  ,OP  LEWIS  CASS. 


PROCEEDINGS   IN   THE   SENATE. 
JANUARY  21,  1889. 

The  PRESIDENT  /ro  tempore  laid  before  the  Senate  the 
fol  lowing  communication  ;  vvhich  was  read  : 

EXECUTIVE  OFFICE,  MICHIGAN, 
Lansing,  Michigan,   January  16,  1889. 

DEAR  SIR  :  I  have  the  pleasure  at  this  time  to  inform  you,  and 
through  you  the  Senate,  that  in  acceptance  of  the  invitation  con 
tained  in  section  1814  of  the  Revised  Statutes  of  the  United  States,, 
a  statue  in  marble  of  LEWIS  CASS  has  been  made  in  pursuance  of 
an  act  of  the  legislature  of  this  State,  passed  at  its  biennial  session 
in  1885,  and  which  statue  is  the  work  of  the  celebrated  American 
sculptor,  Mr.  D.  C.  French,  of  Concord,  Massachusetts.  The  same 
has  been  placed  in  the  old  Hall  of  the  House  of  Representatives  at 
the  Capitol  of  the  United  States  in  the  custody  of  the  Architect  of 
such  Capitol. 

This  wrork  is  now  presented  to  the  Congress  of  the  United  States 
as  one  of  the  statues  contributed  by  the  State  of  Michigan  in  pursu 
ance  of  the  invitation  aforesaid. 

I  write  you  at  this  time  that  such  further  action  may  be  taken  in 
the  matter  by  Congress  as  may  be  deemed  expedient. 
Very  respectfully,  yours, 

CYRUS  G.  LUCE, 

Governor* 
Hon.  JOHN  J.  INGALLS, 

President  of  Senate  of  United  States, 

Washington,  D.  C, 

3 


4  Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass. 

Mr.  PALMER.  Mr.  President,  in  response  to  the  letter  I 
will  state  that  on  the  morning  of  February  18,  at  the  close 
of  the  morning  business,  I  shall  present  resolutions  express 
ive  of  the  sense  of  the  Senate  and  make  a  few  remarks 
thereupon. 

The  PRESIDENT  pro  tempore.  Meanwhile  the  letter  will 
lie  on  the  table. 


FEBRUARY  18,  1889. 

Mr.  PALMER.  In  accordance  with  the  notice  that  I  gave 
January  21,  I  present  the  resolutions  I  send  to  the  desk  and 
ask  for  their  immediate  consideration^ 

The  PRESIDENT  pro  tempore.  The  resolutions  will  be 
read. 

The  Chief  Clerk  read  as  follows  : 

• 

Resolved  by  the  Senate  (the  House  of  Representatives  concurring], 
That  the  thanks  of  Congress  be  tendered  to  the  governor,  and 
through  him  to  the  people  of  the  State  of  Michigan,  for  the  statue  of 
LEWIS  CASS,  whose  name  is  so  conspicuously  connected  with  the  de 
velopment  of  the  Northwest  Territory  and  with  eminent  services  to 
his  State  and  country  both  at  home  and  abroad. 

Resolved,  That  the  strtue  is  accepted  in  the  name  of  the  nation 
and  assigned  a  place  in  the  old  Hall  of  Representatives,  and  that  a 
copy  of  these  resolutions,  signed  by  the  President  of  the  Senate  and 
Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  be  transmitted  to  the  gov 
ernor  of  the  State  of  Michigan. 

Mr.  PALMER.  I  ask  for  the  reading  of  the  governor's 
letter. 

The  PRESIDENT  pro  tempore.   It  will  be  read. 


Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass.  5 

The  Chief  Clerk  read  as  follows  : 

EXECUTIVE  OFFICE,  MICHIGAN, 
Lansing,  Michigan,  January  16,  1889. 

DEAR  SIR:  I  have  the  pleasure  at  this  time  to  inform  you,  and 
through  you  the  Senate,  that  in  acceptance  of  the  invitation  con 
tained  in  section  1814  of  the  Revised  Statutes  of  the  United  States, 
a  statue  in  marble  of  LEWIS  CASS  has  been  made  in  pursuance  of 
an  act  of  the  legislature  of  this  State,  passed  at  its  biennial  session 
in  1885,  and  which  statue  is  the  work  of  the  celebrated  American 
sculptor,  Mr.  D.  C.  French,  of  Concord,  Massachusetts.  The  same 
has  been  placed  in  the  old  Hall  of  the  House  of  Representatives  at 
the  Capitol  of  the  United  States  in  the  custody  of  the  Architect  of 
such  Capitol. 

This  work  is  now  presented  to  the  Congress  of  the  United  States 
as  one  of  the  statues  contributed  by  the  State  of  Michigan  in  pursu 
ance  of  the  invitation  aforesaid. 

I  write  you  at  this  time  that  such  further  action  may  be  taken  in 
the  matter  by  Congress  as  may  be  deemed  -expedient. 
Very  respectfully,  yours, 

CYRUS  G.  LUCE, 

Governor. 

Hon.  JOHN  J.  INGALLS, 

President  of  Senate  of  United  States, 

Washington,  D.  C. 


Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass. 


ADDRESS  OF  MR,  PALMER. 

Mr.  President,  in  responding  to  the  nation's  invitation  to 
the  States,  that  each  should  place  two  statues  of  her  illus 
trious  men  in  Memorial  Hall,  there  was  a  fitness  that  the 
first  place  should  be  given  by  a  State  to  one,  if  such  there 
be,  who  more  than  any  other  had  been  identified  with  her 
infancy,  who  had  defended  her  in  war,  who  had  guided  her 
youthful  footsteps,  who  had  laid  down  for  her  rules  of  con 
duct,  who  had  brought  order  out  of  chaos,  who,  although 
separated  from  her  by  oceans,  or  called  away  by  public  duty, 
still  clung  to  her  as  his  home,  and  fondly  looked  to  her  soil 
as  the  dust  with  which  his  own  was  to  at  last  commingle. 

To-day,  Mr.  President,  we  formally  accept  Michigan's 
first  contribution  to  the  Valhalla  of  the  nation,  and  it  is  but 
seemly  that  the  reasons  for  her  action  should  be  recited. 

LEWIS  CASS  was  born  in  Exeter,  New  Hampshire,  on  the 
9th  day  of  October,  1782.  He  died  in  Detroit  June  17, 
1866.  He  was  of  Puritan  descent,  and  the  names  of  his 
ancestors,  Cass  and  Gillman,  are  to  be  found  creditably 
mentioned  in  early  colonial  history. 

His  father,  Jonathan  Cass,  a  type  of  the  young  patriots 
of  1776,  enlisted  at  the  age  of  nineteen,  on  the  day  after 
the  battle  of  Lexington,  and  shared  the  vicissitudes  of  the 
patriot  army  until  its  disbandment  in  1783,  attaining  the 
rank  of  captain  by  gallantry  and  faithful  service.  He  was 
subsequently  recommended  by  the  legislature  of  New 
Hampshire  for  appointment  as  the  first  marshal  of  that 
State  under  the  Constitution,  and  was  commissioned  as  cap- 


Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass.  1 

tain  in  the  regular  Army  upon  its  organization.  He  rose  to 
the  rank  of  major,  and  resigned  in  1799,  when  he  settled  on 
the  Muskingum  River,  a  few  miles  above  Zanesville,  Ohio. 
There  he  died  in  1830,  high  in  the  esteem  of  the  commu 
nity  in  which  he  lived. 

Lewis  was  the  eldest  of  five  children.  He  was  of  robust 
constitution  and  of  bright  and  eager  mind.  At  ten  years 
of  age  he  entered  Exeter  Academy,  then  under  the  charge 
of  that  accomplished  scholar  and  instructor,  Dr.  Abbott. 
He  was  noted  for  diligence  and  manly  excellence.  He  re 
mained  there  seven  years,  and  during  a  portion  of  that  time 
had  among  his  associates  the  afterward  distinguished  Buck 
ingham,  Saltonstall,  and  Daniel  Webster. 

In  1799  he  taught  school  at  Wilmington,  Delaware,  for  a 
few  months,  preliminary  to  a  foot  and  boat  journey  to  the 
field  of  his  future  work.  In  October,  1800,  he  reached  Ma 
rietta,  the  gateway  through  which  Puritan  blood  and  senti 
ment  first  poured  its  tide,  destined  to  overspread  and  irri 
gate  the  great  West.  He  entered  the  office  of  Governor 
Meigs  and  commenced  the  study  of  law,  which  he  continued 
in  the  office  of  Matthew  Baccus  until  licensed  to  practice  in 
the  courts  of  the  Territory,  in  December,  1802.  He  re 
moved  to  Zanesville,  Ohio,  where  he  rapidly  acquired  the 
confidence  and  clientage  of  the  pioneers,  and  in  1806  he 
married  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Dr.  Spencer,  of  Wood 
County,  Virginia,  formerly  of  Lansingburgh,  New  York,  a 
lady  of  culture  and  refinement. 

In  December  of  the  same  year  he  took  his  seat  in  the  Ohio 
legislature,  and  at  once  was  conceded  a  leadership  unusual 
to  so  young  a  man.  The  treasonable  expedition  of  Aaron 
Burr  was  the  center  of  public  interest  at  that  time,  and  Gen- 


8  Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass. 

eral  CASS  framed  the  law  under  which  his  boats  were  seized 
and  men  arrested.  He  drafted  the  official  communication 
to  President  Jefferson,  stating  the  views  of  the  legislature 
on  that  subject. 

The  ability  displayed  and  zeal  shown  influenced  the  Pres 
ident  to  appoint  him  marshal  of  Ohio'in  1807,  which  posi 
tion  he 'held  until  he  exchanged  it  for  the  colonelcy  of  the 
Third  Regiment  of  Volunteers,  with  which  he  joined  Gen 
eral  Hull  at  the  outbreak  of  hostilities  in  1812. 

His  services  during  that  war  form  no  mean  part  of  its 
history,  and  mark  him  as  a  true  patriot  and  capable  soldier. 
He  led  the  advance  into  Canada,  drew  up  the  proclamation 
addressed  by  General  Hull  to  the  inhabitants,  and  com 
manded  the  detachment  that  drove  in  the  outposts  at  Aux 
Canards,  where  was  shed  the  first  blood  of  the  war.  When 
included  in  the  surrender  of  Detroit  and  paroled,  he  was 
selected  by  his  fellow-officers,  who  shared  his  indignation, 
to  lay  the  facts  before  the  President.  He  hastened  to 
Washington  and  made  the  first  report,  September  12,  1812, 
on  the  inexplicable  circumstances  through  which  a  fort,  an 
army,  and  a  Territory  were  surrendered  without  the  firing 
of  a  gun. 

Immediately  upon  his  exchange  he  was  appointed  colonel 
in  the  regular  Army,  and  soon  after  was  promoted  to  the 
rank  of  brigadier-general.  He  shared  in  the  campaign  of 
1813,  ending  in  the  defeat  of  General  Proctor  at  the  battle 
of  the  Thames  and  the  death  of  Tecumseh,  and  was  left  in 
command  at  Detroit  in  the  fall.  He  was  almost  immedi 
ately  appointed  civil  governor  of  the  Territory  of  Michigan 
and  ex  officio  superintendent  of  Indian  affairs.  , 

Mr.   President,  were  the  claim  for  the  admission  of  his 


Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass.  9 

statue  to  "the  American  Pantheon  "  based  solely  upon  his 
conduct  of  that  office  for  eighteen  years,  there  surely  had 
been  none  to  gainsay  the  right. 

He  assumed  jurisdiction  over  a  wilderness  containing  six 
thousand  French  and  English  speaking  whites  and  forty 
thousand  savages.  No  lands  had  been  sold  by  the  United 
States  ;  no  surveys  had  been  made  ;  no  titles  were*possible. 
The  interior  was  without  roads  and  the  savages  were  jealous, 
restless,  or  openly  hostile. 

His  grasp  of  the  Indian  problem  of  that  day  was  the  com 
prehensive  grasp  of  a  statesman.  He  cast  aside  the  methods 
and  policies  previously  pursued  by  the  French  and  English 
and  treated  the  Indians  as  mere  occupants  and  not  owners 
of  the  lands.  He  proposed  to  purchase  their  possessory 
rights,  limit  their  ranging,  teach  them  mechanics  and  agri 
culture,  and  provide  them  with  schools  and  churches.  From 
the  outset  he  impressed  them  with  the  power  and  benignity 
of  our  Government. 

In  twenty-two  treaties  he  secured  the  peaceable  cession  to 
the  Government  of  the  vast  territory  now  occupied  in  part 
by  four  great  States.  He  built  roads,  ordered  and  superin 
tended  surveys,  established  and  maintained  military  posts, 
built  light-houses,  organized  counties  and  townships,  estab 
lished  courts,  and  provided  all  needed  conveniences  and 
machinery  for  civilized  government  and  the  protection  of 
life  and  property. 

In  1820  he  planned  and  personally  conducted  an  explora 
tion  of  the  Territory,  in  which  he  traveled  over  five  thou 
sand  miles,  most  of  the  way  in  birch  canoes,  treating  and 
exchanging  courtesies  with  the  leading  tribes  of  Indians. 
He  settled  finally  the  question  of  supremacy  as  to  whom 


10  Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass. 

their  allegiance  •  was  due — Great  Britain  or  the  United 
States — with  them  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  overawing  the  in 
solent  Chippewas  by  an  act  of  personal  heroism  worthy  of 
ancient  song  and  story. 

He  prospected  the  copper  region,  estimated  and  reported 
on  the  timber  and  mineral  resources  of  the  L,ake  Superior 
country,*  navigated  the  unknown  rivers,  ascended  the  Mis 
sissippi  to  its  source,  and 'ascertained  the  internal  geogra 
phy  of  a  vast  wilderness,  the  speedy  population  of  which 
was  largely  due  to  the  reports  of  this  expedition.  As  an 
indication  of  his  economic  management,  it  is  well  to  recall 
that  in  proposing  this  journey  to  the  Secretary  of  War  he 
stated  that  no  extra  appropriation  was  needed  for  it,  and 
only  asked  permission  to  ' '  assign  a  small  part,  say  from 
one  thousand  to  fifteen  hundred  dollars,  of  the  sum  appor 
tioned  for  Indian  expenses. ' '  It  was  this  expedition  which 
gave  Henry  R.  Schoolcraft  his  opportunity  to  make  a  last 
ing  fame  in  connection  with  Indian  legends  and  history. 

In  July,  1831,  General  CASS  resigned  his  office  as  gov 
ernor  of  Michigan  to  accept  the  War  portfolio  in  the  Cabi 
net  of  Andrew  Jackson.  He  had  been  appointed  governor 
six  times — under  Presidents  Madison,  Monroe,  and  Adams — 
without  a  protest  from  the  people  or  a  dissenting  vote  in 
the  Senate.  No  treaty  made  by  him  was  ever  rejected  by 
the  Senate  or  complained  of  by  the  Indians,  who  as  late  as 
the  last  council  in  Detroit,  of  the  Chippewas,  Ottawas,  and 
Pottawatomies,  July  25,  1855,  testified  their  respect  for  and 
confidence  in  him  by  abandoning  their  discussion,  flocking 
about  him,  grasping  his  hand,  and  saluting  him  as  an  old 
and  valued  friend  when  he  unexpectedly  entered  the  coun 
cil  room. 


Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass.  1 1 

Hon.  James  V.  Campbell,  for  over  thirty  years  a  justice 
of  the  supreme  court  of  Michigan,  a  man  of  the  Irghest  re 
pute  as  a  jurist  and  citizen  and  a  critical  scholar,  writing 
in  1876  his  Political  History  of  Michigan,  sums  up  his  ac 
count  of  General  CASS'S  service  there  as  follows  : 

His  administration  was  eminently  popular,  and  he  desired  and  en 
deavored  to  secure  to  the  people  as  soon  as  possible  all  the  privileges 
of  self-government.  If  he  erred  in  this  respect  it  was  an  error  in  the 
direction  of  the  largest  popular  authority.  His  views  were  broad 
and  sagacious,  and  he  was  very  free  from  personal  bitterness  and  ma 
lignity.  The  inevitable  asperities  of  politics  exposed  him  in  later 
years  to  the  attacks  made  on  all  public  men,  and  his  course  in  na 
tional  affairs  has  been  severely  assailed  and  warmly  defended;  but 
no  one  now  has  any  doubts  about  his  sincere  and  unqualified  patriot 
ism.  He  was  a  brave  defender  and  a  true  lover  of  his  country. 

As  Secretary  of  War,  General  CASS  held  the  confidence 
and  friendship  of  President  Jackson,  although  he  joined 
Secretary  McL,ane  in  opposing  the  proposed  removal  of  the 
deposits.  .  The  Black  Hawk  war  occurred  and  was  energet 
ically  conducted.  The  executive  measures  called  out  by 
the  nullification  acts  of  South  Carolina  received  his  ap 
proval  and  co-operation.  His  report  on  what  was  known 
as  "the  Cherokee  question"  was  an  able  and  exhaustive 
state  paper,  and  the  plan  outlined  for  the  care  of  the  Indians 
at  that  time  has  been  substantially  followed  to  this  day. 

During  his  Secretaryship  he  presided  at  the  first  temper 
ance  meeting  ever  held  in  Washington  (February  24,  1833), 
and  delivered  the  opening  address  upon  the  organization  of 
the  American  Historical  Society  (October  12,  1835).  Both 
of  these  addresses  were  delivered  in  the  hall  where  his 
statue  now  stands,  and  so  far  as  I  can  learn  they  were  his 
only  public  appearances  there.  On  April  7,  1836,  General 


12  Acceptance  of  the  Stattie  of  Lewis  Cass. 

CASS  presented  a  report  relative  to  the  military  and  naval 
defenses  of  the  country  and  the  supervision  of  internal  im 
provements  by  the  Corps  of  Engineers,  which  was  of  great 
merit,  and  its  leading  features  have  become  incorporated  in 
our  public  policy. 

In  August  of  that  year,  finding  that  his  health  was  be 
coming  impaired,  he  exchanged  the  Secretaiyship  for  the 
position  of  minister  to  France.  Almost  immediately  upon 
his  presentation  at  court  he  obtained  the  payment  of  inter 
est  on  our  indemnity  claims,  thus  terminating  a  vexatious 
dispute  which  at  one  time  threatened  to  involve  us  in  a  war. 

His  most  important  act  as  minister  and  as  an  American 
was  in  effecting  the  defeat  of  the  ratification  of  the  quintu 
ple  treaty  by  the  French  Chamber  of  Deputies.  England 
sought  by  diplomacy  to  secure  the  active  consent  of  Aus 
tria,  Russia,  Prussia,  and  France  to  the  enforcement  of  her 
long  claimed  and  persistently  contested  right  of  visit  and 
search,  under  cover  of  the  general  abhorrence  of  the  African 
slave  trade.  The  United  States  was  not  furnished  a  copy  of 
the  proposed  treaty  or  asked  to  subscribe  to  it,  although 
ours  was  the  first  nation  to  declare  the  slave  trade  unlawful, 
the  first  to  declare  it  to  be  piracy  and  to  take  extreme  meas 
ures  for  its  suppression. 

General  CASS  not  only  filed  a  masterly  and  comprehen 
sive  protest  with  the  French  Government,  but  with  the  con 
sent  of  M.  Guizot,  minister  of  foreign  affairs,  issued  an 
address  directly  to  the  French  people,  which  has  served 
as  a  text-book  of  the  American  position  until  this  day.  His 
efforts  secured  the  rejection  of  the  treaty. 

The  negotiation  of  the  Ashburton  treaty  by  Mr.  Webster, 
without  insisting  upon  the  renunciation  of  England's  claim 


Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass.  13 

to  the  right  of  visit  and  search  in  set  terms,  led  to  the  resig 
nation  of  General  CASS,  and  a  voluminous  correspondence 
with  the  Secretary  of  State  on  the  subject  followed. 

If  it  had  not  been  for  the  sensitiveness  of  the  public  mind  of 
America  on  the  subject  of  slavery,  which  was  prepared  to 
welcome  any  blow  at  that  institution,  although  that  blow 
might  involve  concessions  which  would  return  to  plague  us, 
this  action  of  General  CASS  would  have  given  him  immedi 
ate,  exceptional,  and  lasting  fame.  To  the  student  of  polit 
ical  history  the  stand  he  took  and  the  ability  with  which  he 
defended,  yea  more,  that  he  advanced  it,  together  with  the 
dexterity  in  adapting  means  to  an  end,  stamp  him  not  only 
as  a  statesman  but  a  diplomat  of  the  highest  order. 

Isolated  in  opinion,  cut  off  from  instructions  from  home, 
writh  an  administration  behind  him  whose  views  on  the 
subject  were  unknown  to  him,  surrounded  by  trained  and 
adverse  diplomats,  to  whom  politics  was  the  game  of  a  life 
time,  he  threw  himself  wholly  and  positively  into  the  conflict 
with  a  directness,  an  earnestness,  and  an  alertness  that  must 
command  our  admiration.  The  wonder  grows,  as  we  ana 
lyze  the  situation,  that  this  man,  whose  associations  at  the 
plastic  time  of  his  life  had  been  on  the  frontier,  who  had 
been  denied  that  conventional  education  which  comes  of 
mingling  in  old  communities,  whose  training  was  neither 
of  the  court  nor  the  forum,  who  had  been  forbidden  access 
to  well-filled  libraries,  should  not  only  have  circumvented 
the  methods  of  men  trained  for  diplomacy  in  the  most 
refined  and  critical  arena  of  Europe,  but  should  have  suc 
ceeded  in  holding  a  position  that  our  commissioners  had 
relinquished  at  Ghent,  and  for  which  blood  and  treasure  had 
been  poured  out  in  the  war  of  1812.  He  not  only  did  this, 


14  Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass. 

but  by  his  arguments,  based  on  the  law  of  nations  and  fortified 
by  citations  from  learned  jurists,  he  drew  conclusions  which 
availed  us  much  in  a  dark  period  of  our  civil  war  and  which 
now  are  recognized  as  a  maritime  rule  of  conduct  through 
out  Christendom. 

His  return  to  the  United  States  was  marked  by  a  succes 
sion  of  popular  ovations  which  emphasized  the  public  opinion 
of  his  services. 

In  the  national  convention  of  1844  he  stood  next  to  Van 
Buren  in  the  balloting  for  the  Democratic  candidate  for  the 
Presidency,  until  a  dead-lock  under  the  two-thirds  rule  ter 
minated  in  a  compromise  on  James  K.  Polk.  In  1845,  at 
the  earliest  opportunity,  he  was  elected  to  represent  Mich 
igan  on  this  floor. 

Here  he  at  once  assumed  a  leading  position,  being  heard 
in  January,  1846,  in  defense  of  the  Monroe  doctrine,  and  in 
March  delivering  a  learned  and  forcible  address  on  the  Ore 
gon  boundary  question,  which  was  afterward  paraphrased 
as  ' '  fifty-four  forty  or  fight ' '  and  used  as  a  watch-word  in 
the  campaign  of  1848.  During  this  and  the  succeeding 
Congress  the  Wilmot  proviso  was  the  central  question. 
When  first  proposed  General  CASS  favored  its  incorporation, 
but  subsequently  yielded  to  the  advice  of  Justice  McLean 
and  opposed  it  on  the  ground  of  its  unconstitutionality, 
although  instructed  to  vote  for  it  by  the  legislature  of 
Michigan.  The  instruction  was,  however,  rescinded  before 
the  final  vote  was  reached. 

In  the  Thirty-first  Congress  he  was  second  to  Mr.  Clay  on 
the  committee  which  formulated  the  celebrated  "compro 
mise  measures"  of  that  day,  and  was  chosen  second  only  be 
cause  he  himself  urged  the  propriety  and  policy  of  placing 
the  great  Whig  leader  first. 


Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass.  15 

He  supported  the  measures  reported  by  the  committee 
with  the  exception  of  the  "  fugitive-slave  law,"  for  which 
he  refused  to  vote,  although  in  his  seat  at  the  time  of  its 
passage. 

In  1848  he  was  the  nominee  of  his  party  for  the  Presi 
dency,  receiving  ten  more  than  the  necessary  two-thirds  of 
the  votes  on  the  fourth  ballot,  but  was  defeated  through 
divisions  on  the  slavery  question  in  New  York  and  Penn 
sylvania.  He  received  the  electoral  vote  of  one-half  the 
States,  including  the  State  of  his  birth,  New  Hampshire, 
Ohio,  and  the  entire  Northwest.  He  so  bore  himself  in  the 
struggle  and  after  the  defeat  that  in  1852,  during  forty-nine 
ballots,  he  led  the  poll  for  renomination,  and  in  1856  was 
solicited,  through  published  correspondence,  to  again  bear 
the  standard,  but  declined  to  be  considered. 

When  he  accepted  the  nomination  in  1848  he  resigned 
his  Senatorship,  but  was  re-elected  upon  the  assembling  of 
the  legislature  in  1849  to  serve  out  his  own  unexpired 
term,  and  was  continued  in  the  Senate  as  long  as  his  party 
retained  supremacy  in  Michigan. 

During  his  service  in  the  Senate  he  advocated  a  home 
stead  law,  and  favored  the  peaceable  purchase  of  Cuba,  but 
opposed  every  measure  looking  to  its  forcible  seizure. 

Abhorring  slavery  and  deprecating  its  extension,  he  held 
with  the  men  of  his  school  that  it  was  beyond  the  interfer 
ence  of  the  General  Government,  excepting  for  protection 
in  its  constitutional  status. 

Upon  leaving  the  Senate,  in  1857,  he  was  called  to  the 
Cabinet  of  President  Buchanan  as  Secretary  of  State.  There 
he  maintained  the  doctrines  essential  to  our  nationality, 
which  had  grown  with  his  growth  diirino-  his  extended  serv- 


16  Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass. 

ice  as  a  builder  and  director  of  States  and  as  his  country's 
representative  in  European  councils. 

During  his  care  of  our  foreign  relations  "the  Republic 
received  no  harm,"  and  in  1858  he  was  gratified  with  the 
consummation  of  his  efforts  in  the  abandonment  by  Great 
Britain  of  her  assumption  of  the  right  of  visit  and  search. 

Amid  the  internal  commotions  preceding  the  outbreak  of 
cmlwar  he,  as  with  Clay  in  1850,  advocated  compromise 
between  the  discordant  elements,  but  when  the  President 
refused  to  re-enforce  and  defend  Fort  Sumter,  he  resigned 
his  seat  in  the  Cabinet  and  retired  to  private  life  after  fifty- 
six  years  of  official  service. 

On  April  17,  1861,  he  addres:ed  the  first  war  meeting  in 
Detroit.  In  company  and  in  practical  accord  with  Senator 
Zachariah  Chandler,  he  appealed  to  his  fellow-citizens  to 
stand  by  the  Union.  His  last  public  service  was  a  letter  of 
patriotic  advice  to  Secretary  Seward  during  the  threatening 
complications  with  Great  Britain,  growing  out  of  the  seiz 
ure  of  Mason  and  Slidell. 

Mr.  President,  I  know  of  no  public  man  who  has  filled 
so  many  places  in  the  economy  of  life — teacher,  explorer, 
negotiator  of  treaties,  governor,  pioneer,  lawyer,  legislator, 
marshal,  soldier,  diplomat,  Secretary  of  War,  Senator,  and 
Secretary  of  State.  In  all  he  acquitted  himself  well,  and 
in  most  surpassing  well.  His  failings  were  the  faults  of  his 
party  ;  his  virtues  were  his  own.  In  diplomacy,  bold  or 
placable  as  the  occasion  might  demand  ;  in  legislation,  con 
siderate,  logical,  and  never  dramatic  ;  in  administration, 
assiduous  and  conservative — the  purity  of  his  motives  can 
not  be  gainsaid  and  the  integrity  of  his  acts  is  above  re 
proach.  He  was  a  man  of  fine  presence,  grave  demeanor, 


Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass.    •  17 

and  cultivated  manners.  He  took  a  great  interest  in  young 
men,  and  many  now  living  can  attest  his  active  and  effect 
ive  assistance.  His  house  in  Detroit,  Washington,  and 
Paris  was  always  the  seat  of  a  refined  and  elegant  hospi 
tality. 

General  CASS'S  life  spanned  the  experimental  era  of  our 
history.  To  some  the  Constitution  was  a  procrustean  bed 
to  which  all  things  were  to  be  made  to  conform  ;  to  others 
it  was  an  instrument  elastic  enough  to  meet  every  emergency. 
On  the  one  hand  it  was  regarded  as  a  skin  which  would 
expand  with  every  development  of  frame  or  muscle  ;  on  the 
other  a  coat  of  mail,  within  which  the  organism  might 
grow  but  beyond  the  scales  of  which  growth  was  impossible. 
It  was  a  very  difficult  thing  to  reconcile  or  compass  con 
flicts  apparent  at  the  time  of  its  adoption  ;  to  foresee  those 
which  should  arise  in  the  future  was  beyond  human  pre 
science.  To  outside  pressure  we  were  strong  ;  as  against 
internal  discord  we  were  weak. 

It  was  the  old  fable  of  the  twigs — together  we  could  not 
be  broken,  apart  we  were  easily  rent — and  the  problem  was, 
could  we  hold  together?  The  twigs  took  root;  their  pend 
ant  branches  drooping  to  the  West,  banyan-like,  sought 
earth  and  water,  and  soon  their  giant  boles  sent  back  life 
and  vigor  to  the  composite  parent  stem.  It  was  the  West 
which  made  us  a  nation,  and  to  General  CASS  more  than  any 
other  man  was  the  West  indebted  for  that  self-dependence, 
that  positiveness,  that  development  which,  while  it  was  in 
herent  in  the  race,  was  promoted  and  stimulated  by  his 
efforts  to  impress  upon  it  that  the  people  were  the  source  of 
power  and  that  society  with  its  statutes  and  forms  of  law 
should  be  a  growth  and  not  a  creation. 
H.  Mis.  145 2 


18  Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass. 

Like  most  of  the  prominent  men  of  his  time,  he  believed 
that  the  Union  could  be  preserved  only  by  conciliation. 
He  was  a  strict  constructionist  of  the  Constitution.  He 
abhorred  slavery,  but  he  honestly  believed  that  under  the 
Constitution  it  could  not  be  interfered  with,  and  that  the 
power  of  Congress  was  limited  in  legislating  against  it  in 
the  Territories. 

With  Clay,  Webster,  and  others,  he  tried  by  tentative 
methods  to  arrest  the  storm  that  was  threatening  all  along 
the  horizon.  With  them  he  tried  to  dam  the  stream  that 
bade  fair  to  overwhelm  the  nation  in  a  common  ruin — and 
who  shall  say  that. their  efforts  were  not  essential  to  the  final 
glorious  consummation?  The  stream  rose  higher  than  the 
crown  of  the  dam  and  then  ' '  battlement  and  plank  and  pier 
rushed  headlong  to  the  sea. ' '  It  carried  destruction  in  its 
way,  but  a  destruction  necessary  to  re-creation. 

The  invisible  forces,  always  the  most  potent,  were  the 
factors  which  solved  the  problem.  The  moral  law  recog 
nized  in  the  Ordinance  of  1787  wrought  out  the  economic 
results  of  1865  >  Appomattox  Court  House  was  the  corollary 
of  Marietta;  humanity  was  stronger  than  statutes,  and 
parchments  shriveled  before  the  fires  which  warmed  the 
children  in  a  hundred  thousand  school-houses.  Cadmus 
had  planted  the  dragon's  teeth,  and,  behold,  armed  men 
were  brought  forth.  The  knot  which  all  the  sages  could 
not  untie  was  cut  by  the  sword. 

In  that  crucial  time  when  parties  were  tossing  in  angry 
tumult,  like  ships  in  a  tempest  with  no  beacon  to  guide, 
General  CASS  was  true  to  the  flag.  His  influence,  like  that 
of  Douglas,  sustained  the  wavering,  checked  the  disloyal, 
and  inspired  the  patriot.  The  homes  which  he  more  than 


Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass.  1 9 

any  other  had  opened  for  the  emigrant,  the  civilization 
which  he  more  than  any  other  had  promoted  and  encour 
aged,  then  sent  forth  hundreds  of  thousands  of  men  to  die,  if 
need  be,  for  the  Union. 

He  saw  the  flag  trailed  in  dishonor ;  he  lived  to  see  it  re 
stored  in  glory.  He  saw  the  staff  stripped  of  the  emblem 
of  a  united  country  before  hostile  cannon  ;  he  lived  to  see 
it  bend  beneath  the  streaming  folds,  no  star  blotted  out 
and  no  stripe  discolored,  when  it  was  again  hoisted  amid 
the  salvos  of  artillery.  He  found  us  bound  together  by  a 
rope  of  sand  ;  he  lived  to  see  that  bond  transmuted  in  the 
fierce  heat  of  battle  and  on  the  forge  of  conflict  to  hooks  of 
triple  steel  that  no  man  might  put  asunder.  He  entered  the 
wilderness  which  Virginia  released,  and  which  the  Ordi 
nance  of  1787  consecrated  eternally  to  freedom;  he  lived  to 
see  that  wilderness  transformed  into  populous  States  which 
hurled  nearly  a  million  of  men  to  fight  for  national  unity. 
.  His  first  year  in  public  life  found  him  strenuous  to  cir 
cumvent  the  traitorous  designs  of  an  arch  conspirator 
against  his  country.  His  last  official  act  was  to  protest 
againt  the  vacillation  which  permitted  a  State  to  arm 
itself  against  the  Federal  authority  unchallenged  and  un 
checked.  Two  years  after  he  entered  public  life  the  Afro- 
American  slave  trade  was  abolished  by  statute;  two  years 
before  he  died  domestic  slavery  was  swept  away  by  force  of 
arms.  His  youthful  ears  heard  the  rejoicing  on  the  adop 
tion  of  the  Constitution  ;  his  aged  eyes  saw  that  instrument 
relieved  of  all  complicity  with  a  system  that  the  public  con 
science  had  come  to  regard  as  a  crime.  He  could  say,  '  'All 
of  this  I  saw  and  part  of  which  I  was. ' ' 

Whatever  may  be  said  of  the  sentiments  he  entertained  in 


20  Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass. 

matters  of  political  economy  concerning  which  able  and 
honest  men  have  differed,  no  one  will  ever  assail  his  integ 
rity  of  administration,  the  comprehensiveness  of  his  out 
look,  and  the  entire  devotion  of  thought  and  purpose  to  the 
aggrandizement  of  his  country.  He  found  her  great  in  pos 
sibilities  ;  he  left  her  great  in  development. 

Along  that  toilsome  journey  of  eighty-four  years  he  saw 
no  encroachment  on  her  rights  that  he  did  not  strive  to 
thwart ;  he  had  no  aspiration  that  was  not  consistent  with 
her  greatness. 

More  than  twenty  years  have  passed  since  he  died.  The 
mists  engendered  by  the  heat,  passion,  and  rancor  of  the 
crucial  time  of  the  nation's  history  have  risen,  and  men  are 
judged  not  only  by  their  acts  but  by  the  results  of  their 
acts.  It  has  been  said  that  the  highest  place  in  history 
must  be  assigned  to  the  founders  of  states.  If  this  be  so, 
certainly  the  next  gradation  must  be  assigned  to  him  who 
builds  the  superstructure  on  foundations  already  laid. 

To  such  a  place  impartial  biography  must  assign  IvEWiS 
CASS.  The  State  whose  institutions  he  did  so  much  to 
mold,  and  in  whose  soil  his  ashes  repose,  after  a  lapse  of 
twenty-two  years,  a  time  sufficient  for  scrutiny  of  his  acts 
and  their  consequences,  has  decreed  through  its  representa 
tives  assembled  that  he  is  worthy  of  a  place  beside  the 
great  men  who  stand  serene  and  changeless  beneath  the 
dome  of  the  Capitol. 

It  remains  for  us,  Mr.  President,  to  formally  accept  his 
statue  presented  to  the  nation  by  the  State  of  Michigan. 
She  invokes  for  the  life  and  character  which  it  represents 
and  recalls  the  calm  judgment  of  the  present  and  the  future. 
She  leaves  it  in  that  august  tribunal  where  the  nation  has 


Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass.  21 

gathered  in  part  the  counterfeit  presentments  of  her  heroic 
sons,  with  Williams  the  tolerant,  Allen  the  vehement,  Win- 
throp  the  devout,  and  the  goodly  array  of  worthies  on  whom 
History  has  set  her  seal. 

In  that  court  of  last  resort,  where  every  American  must 
of  necessity  be  his  own  accuser,  defender,  and  judge,  it 
were  well  that  we  should  pause  and,  after  calm  delibera 
tion,  let  our  consciences  enter  up  the  verdict  whether  or  no 
our  aspirations,  our  aims,  and  our  acts  have  been  and  are 
consistent  with  the  glory  of  the  Republic. 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  MORRILL. 

Mr.  President,  General  CASS,  when  I  first  came  to  Wash 
ington  as  a  member  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  was  a 
prominent  member  of  the  Senate,  and  in  1857  he  was  ap 
pointed  Secretary  of  State  by  President  Buchanan,  where 
he  served  until  December,  1860,  and  here  resided  for  some 
time  subsequently.  He  owned  a  large  house  here,  befitting 
the  generous  hospitality  of  himself  and  family,  where  mem 
bers  of  Congress,  irrespective  of  party  affiliations,  were  in 
vited  and  made  welcome.  His  early,  long,  and  important 
State  and  national  services  could  not  fail  to  make  it  pecul 
iarly  appropriate  that  a  life-like  representation  of  his  im 
posing  form  and  figure  should  be  presented  to  the  National 
Hall  of  Statuary,  where  the  magic  of  many  names  of  former 
days  yet  lingers,  and  a  hall  already  reverently  dedicated  to 
some  of  our  bravest  and  best,  and,  as  we  trust — 

Immortal  names 
That  were  not  born  to  die. 


22  Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass. 

In  1864,  by  act  of  Congress,  all  of  the  States  were  in 
vited — 

To  provide  and  furnish  statues,  in  marble  or  bronze,  not  exceed 
ing  two  in  number  for  each  State,  of  deceased  persons  who  have 
been  citizens  thereof,  and  illustrious  for  their  historic  renown  or  for 
distinguished  civic  or  military  services,  such  as  each  State  may  deem 
to  be  worthy  of  this  national  commemoration. 

For  this  purpose  the  old  Hall  of  the  House  of  Represent 
atives  was  set  apart  as  a  National  Statuary  Hall,  and  I 
may  be  pardoned  for  mentioning,  as  the  measure  was  intro 
duced  by  me,  that  it  was  designed  with  the  further  object 
of  preserving  untouched  the  admirable  features  of  perhaps 
the  finest  hall  of  our  country,  then  in  imminent  danger  of 
being  appropriated  and  cut  up  for  the  humble  use  as  docu1 
ment-rooms,  with  a  ' '  long-drawn  aisle ' '  or  narrow  passage 
way  between  the  House  and  Senate  through  the  center. 

Beyond  the  great  beauty  of  the  hall  itself,  its  attractions 
are  destined  to  be  immensely  augmented  as  each  State  adds 
its  chosen  representatives  to  the  national  muster-roll  of  em 
inent  men  who  have  decorated  our  history.  Many  States 
have  already  presented  statues  of  those  whose  renown  the 
American  people  will  preserve  with  pride,  and  whose  merits 
are  here  daily  recognized  by  troops  of  visitors,  but  likely 
hereafter  to  be  even  more  earnestly  studied  and  appreciated 
whenever  the  statues  appear  to  be  inspired  by  the  genius  of 
our  best  artists.  The  statue  now  offered  by  the  prosperous 
State  of  Michigan,  I  feel  sure,  will  be  received  as  in  every 
respect  a  creditable  addition  to  a  creditable  assembly  repre 
senting  celebrities  of  the  past  who  rendered  some  service  to 
the  Republic. 

But  there  will  be  abundant  room  for  many  more,  and  we 
have  much  reason  to  expect  the  grand  old  hall  will  ere  long 


Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass.  23 

be  adorned  by  such  notable  figures,  possibly,  as  would  be 
that  of  Benton,  from  Missouri,  or  those  of  Charles  Carroll 
and  William  Wirt,  from  Maryland ;  Lincoln  and  Douglas, 
from  Illinois  ;  Grimes,  from  Iowa  ;  Morton  and  Hendricks, 
of  Indiana ;  Webster,  from  New  Hampshire  ;  Macon,  once 
styled  "the  last  of  the  Romans,"  from  North  Carolina; 
Clay,  from  Kentucky  ;  Calhoun,  from  South  Carolina  ;  Will 
iam  H.  Crawford  and  George  M.  Troup,  from  Georgia  ; 
Austin  and  Sam  Houston,  from  Texas  ;  and  Madison  and 
Patrick  Henry,  from  Virginia,  with  a  long  illustrious  list 
of  others  easily  to  be  mentioned,  sufficient  to  show  that  our 
materials  to  make  the  hall  nationally  attractive  are  in  no 
danger  of  being  exhausted,  but  in  some  States  may  prove 
embarrassing  from  their  abundance. 

This  truly  representative  hall,  with  its  fraternal  congress 
of  the  dead,  who  yet  speak  in  marble  and  bronze,  will  tend 
to  increase  mutual  respect,  tend  to  knit  us  together  as  a 
homogeneous  people,  here  united  forever  in  a  common 
tribute  of  high  regard  to  Americans  not  unknown  to  fame, 
and  designated  and  crowned  by  their  respective  States  as 
worthy  of  national  commemoration. 

When  we  notice  how  swiftly  some  of  those  with  whom 
we  have  been  associated  here,  and  whom  we  have  loved  and 
admired,  have  passed  away,  and  whose  eloquence,  wit,  and 
learning  are  only  brought  to  the  recollection  of  the  public 
on  tare  occasions,  is  it  not  a  gratification  to  feel  that  there 
have  been  some  of  our  countrymen  in  public  service  who 
have  left  their 

Footprints  on  the  sands  of  time, 

and  to  find  there  are  traditions  and  personal  memories  ex 
tant  in  each  and  every  State  of  historic  worthies  that  are  to 


24  Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass. 

have  honored  remembrance  here  through  all  the  future  ages 
of  the  Republic? 

LEWIS  CASS  belonged  to  the  age  of  Webster,  Clay,  and 
Calhoun,  born  in  the  same  year  with  Webster,  Calhoun, 
Van  Buren,  and  Benton ;  and  though  his  forensic  fame 
may  have  been  eclipsed  when  contrasted  with  that  of  the 
foremost  trio  of  our  country,  as  was  that  of  nearly  all  of 
their  contemporaries,  he  was  a  strong,  well-informed  man, 
capable  of  lucid  and  cogent  argument  whenever  he  chose 
to  prepare  himself  for  debate,  as  he  thought  it  only  respect 
ful  to  the  Senate  to  do,  and  throughout  his  long  career  he 
was  a  prominent  participant  in  events  that  will  be  honora 
bly  perpetuated  in  the  annals  of  our  country. 

The  biographical  details  of  the  life  of  General  CASS  have 
been  so  learnedly  and  completely  portrayed  by  the  distin 
guished  Senator  from  Michigan,  whose  services  here  we  all 
regret  are  so  soon  to  terminate,  that  I  am  reluctant  to  touch 
even  briefly  these  details  again,  but  feel  that  I  must,  because 
the  succession  of  these  related  facts,  covering  more  than 
half  a  century  of  his  personal  history,  are  more  eloquent 
than  any  comments  can  be  of  mine,  and  because  they  seem 
to  be  necessary  to  give  substance  and  support  to  the  slight 
contribution  which  it  is  possible  for  me  to  offer  relative  to 
the  life  and  leading  traits  of  character  of  this  favorite  son  of 
the  State  of  Michigan. 

General  CASS  may  be  reckoned  as  one  of  the  class  often 
held  to  be  somewhat  characteristic  of  our  American  civili 
zation,  or  as  born  in  one  State,  obtaining  a  profession  in 
another,  and  finally  achieving  fame  and  fortune  in  still 
another — an  example  of  the  restless  and  enterprising  pioneers 
the  East  has  sent  and  is  still  sending  to  the  West.  The  son 


Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass.  25 

of  a  captain  in  the  Continental  army,  born  in  New  Hamp 
shire,  educated  at  its  famous  Exeter  Academy,  becoming  a 
young  school-master  in  Delaware;  and  the  next  year,  at 
seventeen  years  of  age,  going  across  the  Alleghanies  on 
foot  to  Marietta,  Ohio,  where  he  studied  law,  and  then 
started  in  his  profession,  in  1803,  at  Zanesville.  Here  he 
married  and  began  his  political  career  as  a  member  of  the 
Ohio  legislature  in  1806,  wh'ere  he  suddenly  became  famous 
as  the  author  of  an  act  to  arrest  the  men  believed  to  be  en 
gaged  in  treasonable  movements  with  Aaron  Burr.  For 
this  timely  service,  very  near  to  the  heart  of  President  Jef 
ferson,  he  was  rewarded  by  an  appointment  as  marshal  of 
Ohio,  an  office  he  retained  until  1813. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  second  war  with  England  he 
joined  the  forces  of  General  Hull  as  a  colonel  of  the  Ohio 
volunteers,  and  was  too  soon  included  in  the  capitulation 
known  as  Hull's  disgraceful  surrender.  Having  been  pa 
roled,  he  hastened  to  Washington  with  an  aching  heart  and 
made  the  first  report  of  the  sad  affair,  and,  like  a  gallant 
and  indignant  young  soldier,  said  in  his  communication  to 
the  Secretary  of  War:  "Our  duty  and  our  interest  was  to 
fight."  As  the  forces  of  the  enemy  were  greatly  inferior 
to  ours  under  General  Hull,  this  appears  to  have  been  the 
unvarnished  truth.  After  being  exchanged  he  was  ap 
pointed  to  the  Twenty-seventh  Regiment  of  Infantry  and 
was  soon  promoted  to  the  rank  of  brigadier-general.  He 
was  in  the  battle  of  the  Thames,  and  at  the  close  of  hostil 
ities  what  his  prowess  and  military  efficiency  had  been  was 
clearly  indicated  by  his  being  placed  in  command  of  the 
Territory  of  Michigan,  and  finally  he  was  made  governor 
of  that  Territory  for  many  years,  showing  throughout  the 
long  service  unimpeachable  administrative  ability. 


26  Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  'Lewis  Cass. 

In  1831  he  was  made  Secretary  of  War  by  President  Jack 
son,  and  largely  sympathized  in  1832  with  the  President  in 
his  resolute  purpose  to  crush  out  nullification. 

In  1836  he  was  appointed  minister  to  France,  where  his 
most  important  act  was  a  vigorous  argumentative  protest 
against  the  quintuple  treaty  by  which  Great  Britain  sought 
by  a  joint  proposal  with  other  European  powers  for  the  sup 
pression  of  the  slave  trade  to  maintain  the  right  of  search  on 
the  high  seas,  but  where  only  a  small  portion  of  the  high 
contracting  parties  could  give  or  were  expected  to  give  prac 
tical  service  or  attention.     It  is   enough  to  say  that  our 
minister's  earnest  protest  dissuaded    the  French   Govern 
ment   from  signing  the  treaty  and  therefore   defeated  it. 
Soon  after  our  own  Government  made  a  treaty  with  Great 
Britain  for  a  mutual  effort  to  suppress  the  slave  trade,  which, 
while  not  authorizing  a  search  of  American  by  British  ves 
sels,  did  not  explicitly  forbid  it,  as  General  CASS  thought 
it  should  have  done,    and  therefore,  feeling  himself  indi 
rectly  discredited,  he  asked  to  be  recalled,  which  request 
was  granted.     His  controversy  on  this  subject  with  Lord 
Brougham,  and  also  with  the  Secretary  of  State,   Daniel 
Webster,  attracted  at  the  time  considerable  attention  and 
occupied  much  space  in  the  public  prints. 

The  omission  of  any  declaration  against  the  right  of 
search  was  perhaps  less  conspicuous  in  1842  than  in  our 
treaty  of  peace  in  1815,  when  the  exercise  of  that  right  was 
understood  to  have  been  the  principal  cause  of  the  war  of 
1812,  but  Great  Britain  then  found  out  and  has  known  ever 
since  that  any  practical  re-assertion  of  the  right  would  be  re 
garded  by  us  as  a  sufficient  cause  for  war.  Most  certainly 
General  CASS  would  not  have  concluded  the  treaty  of  1815 


117117  BE  SIT 


Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass.  27 

without  an  open  and  explicit  provision  against  the  right  of 
search,  but  this  probably  would  have  been  a  humiliation  to 
which  Great  Britain  would  not  have  submitted. 

After  his  return  from  France  he  was  a  candidate,  in  1844, 
for  the  Presidency.  Always  acknowledging  his  allegiance 
to  the  principles  of  the  Democratic  party,  he  cordially  ac 
cepted  the  measures  for  which  the  party  then  contended,  and 
announced  that  he  was  against  a  national  bank  and  in  favor 
of  the  annexation  of  Texas.  He  was  against  the  Wilmot 
proviso,  and  upon  the  question  of  whether  new  States 
should  be  admitted  in  the  Union  with  or  without  slavery  he 
held  that  it  should  be  left  to  be  determined  by  the  people  of 
the  Territories,  and  this  his  opponents  described  as  "  squat 
ter  sovereignty."  He  also,  in  relation  to  the  tariff,  de 
clared — 

That  in  the  imposition  of  duties  necessary  with  the  proceeds  of 
the  public  lands  to  provide  this  revenue  incidental  protection  should 
be  afforded  to  such  branches  of  American  industry  as  may  require 
it.  This  appears  to  me — 

He  said — 

not  only  constitutional,  but  called  for  by  the  great  interests  of  the 
country. 

In  the  Democratic  convention,  however,  Martin  Van 
Buren  had  the  lead,  and  only  lacked  twenty  votes  of  a  two- 
thirds  majority,  but  the  friends  of  General  CASS  declined  to 
supply  the  few  votes  so  greatly  needed,  and  Mr.  Polk,  of 
Tennessee,  finally  received  the  nomination. 

General  CASS,  in  1845,  was  elected  to  the  Senate,  and  at 
once  joined  in  the  earnest  assertion  of  our  right  to  all  of 
Oregon  up  to  the  Russian  boundary.  He  would,  as  he  de 
clared,  "  not  surrender  one  inch  of  it  to  England,"  and  it 


28  Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass. 

may  be  doubted  whether  any  of  us  would  to-day  be  satisfied 
with  less  than  ' '  all  of  Oregon ' '  were  the  question  now  an 
open  one.  At  that  time  it  might,  it  is  true,  have  led  to  a 
third  war  with  Great  Britain.  On  the  resolution  of  Senator 
Allen,  of  Ohio,  against  the  interposition  of  the  powers  of 
Europe  in  the  political  affairs  of  America,  he  was  for  vigor 
ous  action,  for  an  American  policy,  and  declared  : 

We  shall  lose  nothing  at  home  or  abroad,  now  or  hereafter,  by 
establishing  and  maintaining  an  American  policy — a  policy  decisive 
in  its  spirit,  moderate  in  its  tone,  and  just  in  its  objects — proclaimed 
and  supported  firmly  but  temperately. 

At  the  Baltimore  Democratic  convention  in  May,  1848, 
General  CASS  was  once  more  a  candidate  for  the  Presidency, 
and  after  several  ballots  obtained  the  nomination  by  the  re 
quired  majority  of  two-thirds,  his  chief  contestants  being 
James  Buchanan  and  Levi  Woodbury.  General  CASS  at 
once  resigned  his  seat  in  the  Senate  and  retired  to  his  home 
in  Michigan,  quietly  awaiting  the  result.  In  his  letter  of 
acceptance,  as  his  predecessor,  Mr.  Polk  had  done,  he  an 
nounced  his  purpose,  if  elected,  not  to  be  a  candidate  for 
re-election. 

Later,  the  so-called  ' '  Barn-burner  ' '  friends  of  Mr.  Van 
Buren,  feeling  that  he  had  been  neglected  by  his  party,  and 
not  opportunely  helped  by  General  CASS  in  1844,  united  on 
a  free-soil  ticket,  nominating  Mr.  Van  Buren  for  President 
and  Charles  Francis  Adams  for  Vice-President.  General 
CASS  having  been  defeated  and  General  Taylor  elected,  was 
re-elected  to  the  Senate,  where  he  took  part  in  the  impor 
tant  debates  of  that  important  epoch,  generally  supporting 
the  compromise  measures  of  Mr.  Clay  and  opposing  both 
Southern  rights  dogmas  and  the  Wilmot  proviso;  but 


Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass.  29 

though  present,  he  declined  to  vote  on  the  question  of  the 
fugitive-slave  law. 

In  1852  he  was  for  the  third  time  a  prominent  but  un 
successful  candidate  for  the  nomination  to  the  Presidency. 
His  claims  were  widely  conceded,  but  his  party  decided  that 
a  candidate  who  had  never  lost  a  race  would  be  more  avail 
able,  and  nominated  and  elected  Franklin  Pierce,  of  New 
Hampshire. 

In  1857  he  accepted  the  position  of  Secretary  of  State  un 
der  President  Buchanan.  The  great  crisis  in  our  national 
affairs  was  rapidly  approaching,  and  in  1860  President  Bu 
chanan,  in  his  message  to  Congress,  denied  the  existence  of 
the  power  in  the  Constitution  by  which  the  General  Gov 
ernment  can  coerce  a  State.  This  was  not  openly  disap 
proved  by  General  CASS  in  the  Cabinet  meeting  when  the 
message  was  first  read.  Eight  days  afterward,  however, 
he  re-asserted  the  Jacksonian  principles  of  i832-'33,  that 
"the  Union  must  be  preserved,"  and  when  the  President 
refused  to  re-enforce  Major  Anderson  and  reprovision  Fort 
Sumter  he  resigned  his  place  in  the  Cabinet. 

This  last  act  in  his  .public  career  of  fifty-six  years  shows 

that  he  was,  like 

Abdiel,  faithful  found 
Among  the  faithless, 

an  ardent  lover  of  the  Union,  and  did  not  lack  the  cour 
age  of  his  convictions.  The  act  greatly  endeared  him  to  all 
supporters  of  the  Government,  many  of  whom  thronged  to 
his  house  to  listen  to  the  sage  and  temperate  counsel  of  a 
firm  believer  in  the  ultimate  triumph  of  the  Union  with  not 
a  State  blotted  out. 

He  was,  as  has  been  stated,  for  six  or  seven  years  marshal 
of  Ohio,  for  several  years  in  active  military  service,  gov- 


30  Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass. 

ernor  of  Michigan  Territory  for  eighteen  years,  five  years 
Secretary  of  War,  minister  to  France  for  six  years,  eleven 
years  in  the  United  States  Senate,  and  three  and  one-half 
years  Secretary  of  State — a  most  unexampled  tenure  and 
diversity  of  official  services,  all  requiring  comprehensive 
knowledge  and  ability,  both  in  civil  and  military  affairs, 
whether  as  an  executive  officer,  diplomat,  or  statesman,  and 
the  general  voice  of  his  countrymen  has  been  that  in  none 
of  these  high  positions  was  he  found  deficient,  but  that  he 
discharged  every  duty  with  absolute  fidelity,  with  stainless 
purity  in  private  life,  and  with  honor  to  himself,  his  State, 
and  the  country  for  which  he  had  early  shown  himself  ready 
to  stake  his  life. 

Let  us  welcome  the  statue  of  L,EWIS  CASS  as  a  felicitous 
contribution  to  our  American  Pantheon,  where  are  clustered 
precious  memories  that  will  be  for  all  future  generations  an 
inspiration  to  noble  deeds  and  unselfish  devotion  to  the  in 
stitutions  of  a  free,  enlightened,  and  independent  people. 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  CHA-NDLER. 

Mr.  President,  the  present  occasion  naturally  suggests  an 
inquiry  into  the  plan  and  purpose  of  Congress  in  establish 
ing  the  National  Statuary  Hall.  The  movement  originated 
in  the  act  of  July  2,  1864,  which  authorized  the  President — 

to  invite  each  and  all  the  States  to  provide  and  furnish  statues,  in 
marble  of  bronze,  not  exceeding  two  in  number  for  each  State,  of 
deceased  persons  who  have  been  citizens  thereof,  and  illustrious  for 
their  historic,  renown  or  for  distinguished  civic  or  military  services, 
such  as  each  State  may  deem  to  be  worthy  of  this  national  com 
memoration  ;  and  when  so  furnished  the  same  shall  be  placed  in  the 


Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass.  31 

old  hall  ot  the  House  of  Representatives,  in  the  Capitol  of  the 
United  States,  which  is  hereby  set  apart,  or  so  much  thereof  as  may 
be  necessary,  as  a  national  statuary  hall,  for  the  purposes  herein 
indicated. 

Rhode  Island  was  the  first  State  to  respond  to  this  invi 
tation,  and  in  January,  1870,  the  statue  of  Nathaniel  Greene 
was  received  by  Congress.  This  was  followed  in  January, 
1872,  by  the  statue  of  Roger  Williams. 

Connecticut,  early  in  1872.  presented  statues  of  Jonathan 
Trumbull  and  Roger  Sherman. 

New  York,  in  1873  and  1874,  placed  in  the  hall  statues  of 
George  Clinton  and  Robert  R.  Livingston. 

Vermont,  in  1876,  erected  the  statue  of  Ethan  Allen,  and 
in  1 88 1  that  of  Jacob  Collamer. 

Massachusetts  presented,  in  1876,  statues  of  John  Win- 
throp  and  Samuel  Adams. 

Pennsylvania,  in  1883,  presented  the  statue  of  Robert 
Fulton,  and  in  1884,  that  of  Peter  Muhlenberg. 

Maine,  in  1878,  placed  in  the  hall  the  statue  of  William 
King. 

Ohio,  in  1886,  erected  the  statue  of  James  A.  Garfield, 
and  in  1888  the  statue  of  William  Allen. 

New  Jersey,  in  August,  1888,  presented  the  statues  of 
Philip  Kearny  and  Richard  Stockton. 

Michigan  to-day  tenders  to  the  nation  the  statue  of  LEWIS 
CASS. 

A  memorandum  concerning  the  National  Statuary  Hall, 
further  mentioning  the  statues  received  prior  to  and  includ 
ing  February  18,  1889,  I  will  insert  at  the  end  of  my  re 
marks. 

New  Hampshire  has  as  yet  taken  no  action  in  response  to 
the  national  invitation.  By  universal  consent  in  our  State 


32  Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass. 

the  first  place  among  New  Hampshire's  earlier  citizens, 
illustrious  for  their  historic  renown  or  from  distinguished 
civic  or  military  services,  will  be  assigned  to  John  Stark, 
the  gallant  Indian  ranger  and  fighter,  the  brave  soldier  of 
the  Revolution,  who  fought  at  Bunker  Hill,  led  the  van  at 
Trenton,  was  conspicuous  at  Princeton,  and  was  the  hero 
of  the  battle  of  Bennington,  which  was  fought  August  16, 
1777,  mainly  by  New  Hampshire  troops,  who  achieved  the 
victory  which  cut  off  the  retreat  of  Burgoyne  and  his  army 
and  made  possible  their  capture  at  Saratoga.  He  was  born 
in  Londonderry  August  28,  1728,  became  the  last  surviving 
general,  except  one,  of  the  Revolution,  and  died  at  Man 
chester,  May  8,  1822,  at  the  great  age  of  ninety-four,  the 
most  famous  soldier  of  the  Granite  State. 
,  The  second  selection  by  New  Hampshire  will  be  made 
from  among  several  of  her  distinguished  sons,  all  worthy  and 
eminent,  but  pre-eminence  among  whom  it  will  be  difficult 
to  determine. 

New  Hampshire  is,  however,  as  well  as  Michigan,  honored 
by  the  presence  in  the  national  gallery  of  the  statue  this  day 
presented.  LEWIS  CASS  was  born  at  Bxeter,  in  New  Hamp 
shire,  October  9,  1782.  He  soon  emigrated  'to  Ohio,  and 
thence  to  Michigan,  but  he  was  followed  throughout  his 
long  career  by  feelings  of  pride  justly  entertained  by  the 
people  of  his  native  State.  As  a  lawyer,  member  of  the 
legislature  of  Ohio,  marshal  of  that  State,  volunteer  sol 
dier,  colonel,  and  general  in  the  war  of  1812,  governor  of 
Michigan,  Secretary  of  War,  minister  to  France,  United 
States  Senator,  Secretary  of  State,  he  proved  himself  at  all 
times  worthy  of  the  respect  and  admiration  not  only  of  his 
native  and  of  his  adopted  State  but  also  of  the  people  of  the 


Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass.  33 

whole  country.  As  a  representative  of  New  Hampshire  in 
this  Chamber,  I  desire  to  thank  the  people  of  Michigan  for 
the  appropriate  memorial  which  they  this  day  place  in  the 
national  Capitol  to  one  of  the  most  distinguished  sons  of 
New  Hampshire,  and  one  of  the  most  eminent  citizens  of 
Michigan  and  of  the  Union,  and  which  Congress  now  ac 
cepts  in  behalf  of  a  grateful  people. 

It  does  not  fall  within  my  province  on  this  occasion,  after 
the  full  narratives  and  eloquent  eulogies  of  the  Senator  from 
Michigan  and  the  Senator  from  Vermont,  who  have  pre 
ceded  me,  to  recite  at  any  length  the  words  or  the  deeds  of 
General  CASS.  My  brief  contribution  will  be  confined  to  an 
attempt  to  fix  attention  upon  a  few  of  the  special  circum 
stances  of  his  life  which  seem  to  me  to  have  materially  aided 
in  forming  his  strong  and  remarkable  character,  and  to  a 
consideration  of  his  relations  to  the  most  important  ques 
tions  of  his  public  life,  the  controversy  over  slavery. 

In  the  first  place,  the  character  of  General  CASS  must 
have  been  largely  influenced  by  his  familiarity  with  the 
patriotic  services  of  his  father  and  uncle  in  the  war  of  the 
Revolution.  It  appears  that  his  father,  Jonathan  Cass,  with 
his  brother  Daniel,  enlisted  in  the  Revolutionary  army  at  the 
outbreak  of  hostilities,  and  fought  side  by  side  at  Bunker 
Hill  ;  and  his  father  was  in  the  conflicts  of  Monmouth, 
Trenton,  Princeton,  Germantown,  and  Saratoga.  About 
the  close  of  the  war  LEWIS  CASS  was  born,  and  he  soon  be 
gan  to  realize  how  momentous  had  been  the  recent  Revolu 
tionary  struggle,  and  with  what  devotion  and  patriotic  ardor 
his  father  and  his  uncle  had  sacrificed  the  comforts  of  home 
and  periled  their  lives  in  order  to  secure  the  independence 
of  the  colonies.  Such  ancestry  and  such  surroundings  in 
H.  Mis.  145 3 


34  Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass. 

his  early  and  susceptible  youth  inevitably  made  a  deep  im 
pression  upon  the  mind  and  heart  of  the  boy,  and  doubt 
less  largely  contributed  to  the  development  in  him  of  that 
energy,  patriotism,  and  devotion  to  the  Union  of  the  States, 
which  under  all  circumstances  of  hope  and  joy,  or  of  doubt 
and  gloom,  were  an  inseparable  part  of  his  character  and  life. 

Highly  beneficial  to  the  subject  of  these  remarks  must 
also  have  been  his  school  education  and  his  own  experience 
as  a  school-teacher.  Exeter  Academy  was  founded  by  John 
Phillips  in  1781,  and  soon  became  a  school  of  note;  and 
young  CASS,  born  in  Exeter,  was  as  fortunate  in  receiving 
the  help  of  that  academy  as  have  been  in  later  years  other 
distinguished  men  in  enjoying  the  advantages  of  a  school 
which  has  become  so  justly  celebrated.  After  leaving  the 
academy  he  became  a  school-teacher,  and  was  thus  engaged 
at  Wilmington,  Delaware,  when  his  father  took  his  family 
thence  to  Ohio.  Until  recent  years  nearly  every  son  of  New 
England  who  has  become  prominent  in  professional  or  pub 
lic  life  has  been  able  to  recur  to  the  fact  that  in  his  youth, 
when  obtaining  his  education,  he  taught  a  village  school. 
Such  experiences  in  the  capacity  of  teacher  have  been  of 
quite  as  high  a  value  to  the  teacher  as  to  those  who  have 
been  taught ;  and  it  may  safely  be  affirmed  that  to  this  early 
and  fortunate  connection  with  Exeter  Academy  and  to  his 
practice  as  a  teacher  of  others  General  CASS  mainly  owed 
that  intellectual  discipline  and  literary  culture  and  ability 
which  he  displayed  when  long  years  after,  having  in  the 
mean  time  been  a  soldier  and  a  frontier  pioneer,  he  became 
an  orator  upon  the  floor  of  the  United  States  Senate. 

To  the  military  experiences  of  General  CASS  must  also 
have  been  due  much  of  the  confidence  and  firmness  which 


Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass.  35 

he  afterwards  displayed.  Enlisting  in  the  war  of  1812  he 
soon  became  a  colonel  and  was  captured  at  the  fall  of  De 
troit  under  General  Hull  ;  returning,  indignant,  to  Ohio,  he 
received  a  commission  as  brigadier-general,  joined  the  army 
under  General  Harrisoh,  and  participated  in  the  victories  of 
this  distinguished  commander,  by  whom  he  was  commended 
for  his  ability  and  bravery.  The  whole  military  career  of 
General  CASS  was  in  the  highest  degree  honorable  ;  and  in 
searching  for  the  causes  of  his  distinguished  success  in  after 
years  great  importance  must  be  attached  to  the  effect  of  his 
military  experience  in  forming  and  strengthening  the  char 
acter  which  guided  and  energized  the  work  of  his  life  as  a 
public  man. 

Hardly  less  important  than  his  military  experience  in  the 
formation  of  his  character  must  be  placed  his  long  service 
as  Territorial  governor  of  Michigan.  Beginning  in  1813 
and  not  ending  until  1831,  these  eighteen  years  of  varied  la 
bors  and  achievements,  involving  the  settlement  of  trouble 
some  Indian  questions  and  all  the  difficulties  incident  at 
that  day  to  the  government  of  a  Western  Territory  slowly 
growing  toward  statehood,  must  have  been  fruitful  in  events 
and  experiences  which  tended  to  shape  and  develop  those 
traits  which  were  soon  to  find  scope  for  their  influence  on 
the  broadest  national  field. 

Coming  now  to  consider  the  career  of  General  CASS  as  a 
statesman  and  a  publicist,  it  would  be  interesting,  if  time 
were  afforded,  to  review  the  principal  incidents  of  his  event 
ful  life  during  the  thirty  years  from  1831  to  1861.  There 
were  many  phases  to  his  work  as  Secretary  of  War.  He 
was  compelled  to  continue  to  deal  with  Indian  questions, 
for  which  he  was  so  well  fitted,  particularly  with  the  diffi- 


36  Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass. 

culties  with  the  Cherokees.  As  minister  to  France  he 
showed  himself  an  able  diplomatist,  and  his  persistency  in 
resisting  the  right  of  search,  notwithstanding  the  quintuple 
treaty  was  satisfactory  to  Mr.  Webster  and  the  national  ad 
ministration,  undoubtedly  caused  the  defeat  of  that  treaty 
through  the  non-concurrence  of  France,  resulting  from  the 
vigorous  protest  of  Mr.  CASS.  He  was  a  many-sided  man, 
and  during  his  long  public  career,  which  can  not  be  said  to 
have  ended  until  five  years  before  his  death,  which  occurred 
on  the  i  yth  of  June,  1866,  he  dealt  with  many  public  ques 
tions,  always  with  ability,  zeal,  and  patriotic  devotion  to 
his  country's  interests.  But  his  relations  to  the  public  con 
troversies  over  slavery  were  the  most  important  of  his  life, 
and  to  considering  those  alone  will  the  remainder  of  my  re 
marks  be  directed.  It  is  impossible  to  comprehend  his  pub 
lic  life  without  such  consideration ;  it  is  needful  while  so 
engaged  to  speak  with  candor  and  fairness  and  with  becom 
ing  reserve. 

Concisely  stated,  General  CASS'S  political  action  with  ref 
erence  to  the  slavery  question,  which  was  the  overpowering 
national  issue  from  his  entry  into  the  Senate,  March  4,  1845, 
until  he  left  the  Cabinet  of  President  Buchanan,  December 
14,  1860,  was  this  :  He  advocated  the  Mexican  war  and  he 
opposed  the  Wilmot  proviso,  notably  in  his  famous  Nichol 
son  letter  of  December  24,  1847.  In  l848  lie  was  a  candi 
date  for  President  on  a  platform  and  with  a  letter  of  accept 
ance  so  much  favoring  slavery  that  Mr.  Van  Buren  became 
a  third-party  candidate  on  an  anti-slavery  platform  and 
caused  the  defeat  of  General  CASS  and  the  election  of  Gen 
eral  Taylor.  Later,  in  the  Senate,  he  continued  his  opposi 
tion  to  the  Wilmot  proviso  and  was  a  leading  advocate  of 


Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lezuis  Cass.  37 

the  compromise  measures  of  1850,  and  of  the  repeal  of  the 
Missouri  compromise,  in  1853.  Entering  the  Cabinet  of 
President  Buchanan  as  Secretary  of  State,  he  supported  the 
Kansas-Nebraska  policy,  and  favored  during  the  winter  of 
1860-' 61  the  Crittenden  resolutions,  designed  to  make  the 
abolition  of  slavery  in  the  States  by  national  action  impos 
sible  without  the  consent  of  all  the  States. 

From  this  recital  it  appears  that  General  CASS  was  one  of 
those  national  Democrats  who  believed  in  maintaining  in 
the  broadest  and  fullest  extent  those  compromises  favoring 
slavery  which  entered  into  the  framing  of  the  national  Con 
stitution,  and  that  he  was  opposed  to  all  those  views  hostile 
to  slavery  which  finally  found  expression  in  the  organiza 
tion  in  1856  of  the  Republican  party.     The  conflict  between 
these  two  sets  of  opinions  has  now  so  far  passed  into  history 
that  it  ought  to  be  possible  to  discuss  the  question  without 
partisanship  and  with  some  hope  of  reaching  a  just  judgment. 
In  looking  back  to  1852  and  the  previous  years  it  must  be 
admitted  that  anti-slavery  condemnation  of  Mr.  CASS  and 
those  Democrats  who  thought  and  acted  with  him  must  also 
be  extended  to  all  the  leading  members  of  the  Whig  party. 
Both  parties  in  1852  indorsed  the  compromises  of  1850 
and  nominated  their  respective  candidates — General  Pierce, 
the  Democrat,  and  General  Scott,  the  Whig — upon  the  plat 
form  of  adherence  to  those  compromise  measures  and  of  dis 
approbation  of  anti-slavery  agitation.     If  both  parties  were 
wrong  at  that  time  it  is  necessary  to  maintain  that  out  of 
the  3,144,201  voters  in  the  Presidential  election  of  1852  who 
voted,  1,601,474  for  Pierce,  1,386,578  for  Scott,  and  156,149 
for  Hale,  only  the  latter  number  were  correct  in  their  posi 
tion  on  the  slavery  question  ;  and  even  if,  in  view  of  later 


38  Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  'Lewis  Cass. 

history,  this  assertion  may  be  confidently  made,  yet  it  still 
remains  impossible  to  charge  upon  the  great  mass  of  voters 
of  this  country  unworthy  motives  or  a  lack  of  patriotism  in 
assuming  their  positions  upon  this  troublesome  question. 

But  how,  it  will  naturally  be  asked,  is  it  possible  for  those 
Americans  who  earnestly  affirm  that  the  compromise  meas 
ures  of  1850  were  a  mistake;  that  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri 
compromise  was  a  grievous  wrong,  and  that  the  many  con 
cessions  to  slavery  were  fatal  mistakes,  also  to  admit  that 
the  motives  of  the  advocates  of  such  wrongful  measures  were 
as  honest  as  their  opponents  and  were  patriotic  statesmen 
whom  the  country  justly  honored  while  living,  and  to  whose 
memc  jies,  now  they  are  gathered  to  their  fathers,  the  Ameri 
can  people  should  pay  such  tributes  of  respect  and  affection 
as  those  which  are  now  being  offered  to  the  memory  of  the 
favorite  statesman  of  Michigan?     Simply  in  this  way,  as  I 
humbly  conceive,    by  ascribing  to  General  CASS  and  his 
political  associates  the  lofty  motive  of  a  determination  that 
nothing  whatever  should  be  allowed  to  endanger  or  destroy 
the  Union  of  the  States.     To  do  them  full  justice  we  must 
go  back  to  the  early  years  of  the  century.     At  the  pres 
ent  time,  after  one  hundred  years  under  the  Constitution 
and  the  Union,   whose  various  parts  have  become  firmly 
cemented  together  by  the  sad  but  helpful  experiences  of  the 
great  civil  war,  the  Union  seems  to  be  and  really  is  beyond 
danger  of  destruction  for  a  long  period,  perhaps  for  centu 
ries  to  come;  but  this  confidence  was  by  no  means  felt  in 
the  days  of  those  men  whose  lives  we  are  now  contem 
plating. 

The  Union  had  hardly  begun  when  the  slavery  question 


Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass.  39 

threatened  trouble,  and  there  came  many  fears,  naturally 
arising  even  if  not  well  founded,  that  to  tolerate  controversy 
over  slavery  would  bring  about  a  dissolution  of  the  Union. 
It  seemed  easy  then  for  the  anti-slavery  men  to  say  that 
those  fears  were  groundless,  but  the  recent  events  from 
1 86 1  to  1865  have  proved  that  they  were  based  upon  real 
dangers.  At  all  events  General  CASS  and  his  associates  so 
believed  and  so  acted.  The  Union  was  much  to  them. 
For  independence  some  of  them  had  fought.  They  were 
near  to  the  days  of  the  Revolution.  They  and  theirs  had 
made  sacrifices  for  the  Union,  and  it  embodied  for  them 
their  whole  hope  for  a  prosperous  future  for  their  posterity. 
Under  these  circumstances  they  maintained  that  it  was  only 
by  what  they  considered  a  faithful  observance  of  the  Con 
stitution  and  by  discouraging  agitation  on  the  subject  of 
slavery  that  the  inestimable  blessings  of  the  Union  of  these 
States  could  be  made  perpetual. 

I  am  not  prepared  myself  to  say  that  in  taking  this  view 
of  their  political  duties  these  men  were  absolutely  unself 
ish  or  wholly  sincere,  or  in  every  way  patriotic,  but  such 
has  been  the  opinion  of  some  anti-slavery  writers  and  speak 
ers  when  they  have  endeavored  to  dispassionately  review 
the  incidents  of  the  great  anti-slavery  conflict  before  its  cul 
mination  in  civil  war. 

Mr.  Webster,  who  had  always  leaned  strongly  toward  the 
anti-slavery  side,  at  last,  in  his  speech  on  the  yth  of  March, 
1850,  approved  the  compromise  measures  of  that  year,  and 
thus  brought  bitter  anti-slavery  denunciations  upon  his 
head.  But  Mr.  Elaine,  in  his  ' '  Twenty  Years  of  Congress, ' ' 
is  inclined  to  attribute  Mr.  Webster's  action  at  this  crisis 


40  -Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass. 

to  sincere  sentiments  of  patriotism.     He  says  of  Mr.  Web 
ster  in  this  connection  : 

He  belonged -with  those  who  could  remember  the  first  President, 
who  personally  knew  much  of  the  hardships  and  sorrows  of  the  Rev 
olutionary  period,  who  were  born  to  poverty  and  reared  in  privation. 
To  these  the  formation  of  the  Federal  Government  had  come  as  a 
gift  from  Heaven,  and  they  had  heard  from  the  lips  of  the  living 
Washington,  in  his  farewell  words,  that  "  the  Union  is  the  edifice  of 
our  real  independence,  the  support  of  our  tranquillity  at  home,  our 
peace  abroad,  our  prosperity,  our  safety,  and  of  the  very  liberty 
which  we  so  highly  prize,  that  for  this  Union  we  should  cherish  a 
cordial,  habitual,  immovable  attachment,  and  should  discountenance 
whatever  may  suggest  even  a  suspicion  that  it  can  in  any  event  be 
abandoned."  Mr.  Webster  had  in  his  own  life-time  seen  the  thirteen 
colonies  grow  to  thirty  powerful  States.  He  had  seen  three  millions 
of  people,  enfeebled  and  impoverished  by  a  long  struggle,  increased 
eightfold  in  number,  surrounded  by  all  the  comforts,  charms,  and  se 
curities  of  life.  All  this  spoke  to  him  of  the  Union  and  of  its  price 
less  blessings.  He  now  heard  its  advantages  discussed,  its  perpetu 
ity  doubted,  its  existence  threatened. 

A  convention  of  slaveholding  States  had  been  called  to  meet  at 
Nashville  for  the  purpose  of  considering  the  possible  separation  of  the 
sections.  Mr.  Webster  felt  that  a  generation  had  been  born  who 
were  undervaluing  their  inheritance,  and  who  might,  by  temerity, 
destroy  it.  Under  motives  inspired  by  these  surroundings,  he  spoke 
for  the  preservation  of  the  Union.  He  believed  it  to  be  seriously 
endangered.  His  apprehensions  were  ridiculed  by  many  who,  ten 
years  after  Mr.  Webster  was  in  his  grave,  saw  for  the  first  time  how 
real  and  how  terrible  were  the  perils  upon  which  those  apprehensions 
were  founded. 

*#*###* 

The  thoughtful  reconsideration  of  his  severest  critics  must  allow 
that  Mr.  Webster  saw  before  him  a  divided  duty,  and  that  he  chose 
the  part  which  in  his  patriotic  judgment  was  demanded  by  the  su 
preme  danger  of  the  hour. 

Whether  or  not  the  course  of  Mr.  Webster  can  be  thus 
justified  and  must  be  adjudged  to  be  patriotic,  opinions  will 


Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass.  41 

differ  and  every  one  must  decide  for  himself.  If  Mr.  Web 
ster  was  right,  equally  so  was  General  CASS.  For  the 
Union  to  establish  which  his  father  had  fought ;  for  the 
Union  in  the  service  of  which  he  had  himself  risked  his  life 
in  battle  ;  for  the  Union  of  those  States  which,  so  feeble  at 
first,  he  saw  beginning  to  move  forward  toward  a  won 
derful  greatness,  of  which  he,  however,  in  his  most  hopeful 
visions  had  no  adequate  comprehension — for  this  Union  he 
was  willing,  and  others  like  him  were  willing,  to  yield  too 
much  to  slavery  and  to  the  South.  But  it  certainly  is  our 
duty  in  this  generation,  when  the  black  cloud  of  slavery  has 
forever  passed  away,  to  endeavor  to  charitably  and  favora 
bly  judge  those  whose  sole  controlling  motive  may  have 
been  devotion  to  the  Union  of  the  States  which  even  then 
so  much  blood  and  treasure  had  been  spent  to  accomplish. 
But  however  pure  and  patriotic  may  have  been  the  mo 
tives  of  General  CASS  in  his  political  course,  it  is  sadly  true 
that  his  sufferings  were  intense  as  the  culmination  ap 
proached  of  those  dark  events  which  preceded  and  opened 
up  the  war  of  the  rebellion.  Personal  humiliation  also 
tended  to  embitter  his  existence.  The  State  of  Michigan, 
which  had  been  justly  proud  of  her  favorite  and  greatest 
son,  and  had  always  sustained  him  by  her  votes,  ceased  from 
her  devotion,  and,  on  January  10,  1857,  Zachariah  Chandler 
was  elected  as  his  successor  in  the  Senate.  The  same  writer 
from  whom  I  have  quoted,  in  an  introduction  to  a  biogra 
phy  of  Mr.  Chandler,  says  : 

It  is  a  noteworthy  fact,  not  infrequently  adverted  to,  that  the 
political  opinions  of  Michigan,  both  as  Territory  and  State,fora  period 
of  sixty  years,  were  represented  and  indeed, .  in  no  small  degree, 
formed  by  two  men  of  New  Hampshire  birth.  From  1819  to  1854 
General  CASS  was  the  accepted  political  leader  of  Michigan,  and 


42  Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass. 

only  once  in  all  that  long  period  of  thirty-five  years  did  her  people 
fail  to  follow  him. 

Notwithstanding  the  desertion  by  his  State  he  continued 
to  be  a  representative  of  the  national  Democracy,  which 
came  at  once  to  his  support.  He  passed  immediately  from 
the  Senate  into  the  Cabinet  of  President  Buchanan  and 
continued  his  efforts  for  the  preservation  of  the  Union  by 
further  yielding  to  the  demands  of  the  advocates  of  slavery. 
But  as  the  evil  and  terrible  days  of  civil  war  were  approach 
ing  even  he  began  to  feel  that  the  policy  of  conciliation 
and  concession  might  be  carried  too  far.  When  President 
Buchanan  decided  not  to  re-enforce  Fort  Sumter  General 
C ASS'S  indignation  was  aroused,  and  he  resigned  from  the 
Cabinet  and  was  succeeded  by  Jeremiah  S.  Black,  and  about 
the  time  of  the  inauguration  of  President  Lincoln,  in 
March,  1861,  he  returned  to  his  home  in  Detroit  full  of  fore 
bodings  for  his  country.  I  have  been  told  by  more  than  one 
person  who  saw  him  at  this  time  of  the  sadness  and  gloom 
which  had  settled  down  upon  him  on  account  of  the  dis 
tracted  condition  of  the  country  he  had  served  so  long,  and 
I  also  find  his  condition  aptly  described  by  General  Garfield 
in  his  speech  in  the  House  of  Representatives  in  commem 
oration  of  the  life  of  Zachariah  Chandler.  He  said  : 

In  the  stormy  spring  of  1861,  when  the  foundations  of  the  Republic 
trembled  under  the  tread  of  assembling  armies,  I  made  a  pilgrimage 
to  the  home  of  the  venerable  LEWIS  CASS,  who  had  just  laid  down 
his  great  office  as  chief  of  the  State  Department,  and  for  an  hour  I 
was  a  reverent  listener  to  his  words  of  wisdom.  And  in  that  con 
versation  he  gave  me  the  thought  which  I  wish  to  record.  He  said: 
"  You  remember,  young  man,  that  the  Constitution  did  not  take  effect 
until  nine  States  had  ratified  it.  My  native  State  was  the  ninth.  It 
hung  a  long  time  in  doubtful  scale  whether  nine  would  agree ;  but 
when  at  last  New  Hampshire  ratified  the  Constitution  it  was  a  day 


Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass.  43 

of  great  rejoicing.  My  mother  held  me,  a  little  boy  of  six  years,  in 
her  arms  at  a  window  and  pointed  me  to  a  great  man  on  horseback 
and  to  the  bonfires  that  were  blazing  in  the  streets  of  Exeter,  and  told 
me  that  the  horseman  was  General  Washington  and  the  people  were 
celebrating  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution.  So,"  said  the  aged 
statesman,  "  I  saw  the  Constitution  born  and  I  fear  I  may  see  it  die." 

This  occurrence  was  on  Wednesday,  November  4,  1789, 
while  Washington  as  President  was  making  his  eastern  tour, 
as  he  passed  from  Portsmouth,  through  Exeter  to  Haverhill, 
Massachusetts. 

General  Garfield  proceeded  : 

He  then  traced  briefly  the  singular  story  of  his  life.  He  said  :  "  I 
crossed  the  Alleghany  Mountains  and  settled  in  your  State  of  Ohio 
one  year  before  the  beginning  of  this  century.  Fifty-four  years  ago 
now  I  sat  in  the  general  assembly  of  your  State  of  Ohio.  In  1807 
I  received  from  Thomas  Jefferson  a  commission  as  United  States 
marshal,  which  I  still  preserve,  and  am  probably  the  only  man  living 
to-day  who  bears  a  commission  from  Jefferson's  hand."  And  so, 
running  over  the  great  retrospect  of  his  life  and  saddened  by  the 
bloody  prospect  that  1861  brought  to  his  mind,  he  said,  "I  have 
loved  the  Union  ever  since  the  light  of  that  bonfire  and  the  sight  of 
General  Washington  greeted  my  eyes.  I  have  given  fifty-five  years 
of  my  life  and  my  best  efforts  to  its  preservation.  I  fear  I  am  doomed 
to  see  it  perish." 

How  solitary  and  sad  indeed  was  the  condition  of  this 
patriotic  old  statesman  going  home  to  Michigan  to  die.  All 
his  labors  and  sacrifices  seemed  to  him  to  have  been  in  vain. 
Although,  as  the  world  esteems  achievements,  he  had  at 
tained  a  high  degree  of  success  in  life,  yet  he  thought  of  his 
defeat  as  a  candidate  for  President ;  he  realized  that  he  had 
been  forced  from  the  Senate,  and  he  now  saw  simultane 
ously  with  the  defeat  of  his  party  which  he  loved,  the 
country  which  he  had  served,  going  rapidly,  as  he  believed, 
to  inevitable  dissolution  and  destruction.  It  is  remarkable 


44  Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass. 

that  with  such  a  depression  of  spirits,  aged  upwards  of  eighty 
years,  General  CASS  continued  much  longer  to  survive. 

But  Providence  had  kindly  decreed  that  he  should  not 
pass  away  from  earth  in  doubt  whether  his  country  was  to 
live  or  die.  Before  his  death  in  1866  glad  tidings  reached 
this  son  of  the  Revolution,  soldier  of  the  war  of  1812,  and 
pioneer  of  the  magnificent  Commonwealth  of  Michigan  ;  to 
this  grand  statesman  and  true  patriot  came  the  welcome 
and  glorious  announcement  that  the  country  of  his  affection 
had  indeed  safely  passed  through  the  fiery  furnace  of  civil  war, 
to  be  in  its  new  and  freer  life  stronger  and  more  enduring  than 
he  had  ever  dreamed  it  could  become — for  the  reason  that 
the  great  source  of  all  his  fears  during  his  long  life-time  of 
patriotic  service  had  in  the  heat  of  the  conflict  disappeared 
forever  and  forever,  and  the  Union  of  these  States,  saved  by 
doing  justly,  at  last  stood  a  nation,  exalted  by  righteousness; 
"redeemed,  regenerated,  and  disenthralled  by  the  irresisti 
ble  genius  of  universal  emancipation. ' ' 

The  PRESIDENT  pro  tempore.  If  there  be  no  objection,  the 
consideration  of  the  unfinished  business,  which  should  be 
resumed  at  this  hour,  will  be  informally  laid  aside  until  de 
bate  upon  the  pending  resolution  shall  have  been  concluded. 


Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass. 


45 


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46  Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass. 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  MORGAN. 

Mr.  President,  in  expressing  my  cordial  approval  of  the 
resolution  and  my  concurrence  with  the  statements  and 
sentiments  expressed  on  this  occasion  by  the  Senator  from 
Michigan  [Mr.  Palmer],  I  also  desire  to  state  that,  as  a 
Senator  from  Alabama,  I  am  glad  of  the  opportunity  of 
uniting  with  them  in  doing  honor  to  the  memory  and  fame 
of  LEWIS  CASS. 

Alabama  never  for  a  moment  forgot  to  hold  LEWIS  CASS 
in  honored  and  affectionate  remembrance  as  a  patriot,  a  sol 
dier,  a  statesman,  and  a  legislator. 

In  December,  1860,  he  closed  a  continuous  public  service 
of  more  than  a  half  century,  in  which  every  act  was  hon 
orable,  by  his  resignation  from  the  Cabinet  of  President 
Buchanan  as  Secretary  of  State.  In  that  act  was  expressed 
a  total  dissent  from  the  attitude  held  by  the  people  of  Ala 
bama  on  a  subject  that  had  begun  to  grow  up  into  a  sectional 
dispute  when  LEWIS  CASS  was  born,  and  was  ended  by  the 
sword  in  the  last  years  of  his  life. 

The  side  of  that  question  that  had  become  so  serious  to 
the  South,  on  account  of  the  value  of  the  property  involved 
and  its  social  bearings,  had  to  him  some  very  repulsive 
features.  But  he  saw  a  people  included  in  its  toils  who 
had  not  created  the  evil,  but  had  found  it  among  them  as 
an  inheritance.  He  found  that  the  compact  of  union  con- 
•tained  guaranties  for  its  protection,  and  he  was  the  sworn 
friend  and  supporter  of  that  compact. 

Down  to  the  hour  when  the  sword  became  the  arbiter  of 


Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass.  47 

these  controversies  he  smothered  his  aversion  to  slavery  that 
he  might  bear  true  allegiance  to  the  Constitution,  and  he 
endeavored  to  interpose  that  shield  for  the  protection  of  the 
South. 

We  parted,  at  the  close  of  the  seventh  decade  of  our  Union, 
as  men  part  when  one  man  goes  out  to  death  and  the  other 
to  assured  life  and  prosperity;  but  being  friends  their  part 
ing  is  equally  sad  to  both.  So  CASS  and  the  South  parted. 

He  had  always  been  faithful  to  the  Constitution  and  just 
to  the  South,  and  in  parting  with  us  to  assume  toward  us 
the  attitude  of  a  public  enemy  he  did  not  withdraw  any 
declaration  he  had  ever  made  as  to  the  character  of  the  South 
ern  people  or  the  motives  that  he  recognized  as  being  sin 
cere  which  led  them  to  protect  their  rights,  as  they  under 
stood  them,  under  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 

In  1855,  when  the  great  issue  between  the  sections  had 
'taken  definite  shape  and  a  terrible  conflict  was  impending, 
he  wrote  this  to  the  Detroit  Free  Press : 

I  have  never  known  the  time  when  the  Democratic  party  was  called 
upon  by  higher  considerations  to  adhere  faithfully  and  zealously  to 
their  organization  and  their  principles  than  they  are  at  this  day.  Our 
confederation  is  passing  through  the  most  severe  trial  it  has  under 
gone.  Unceasing  efforts  are  making  to  excite  hostile  and  sectional 
feelings,  against  which  we  were  prophetically  warned  by  the  Father 
of  his  Country,  and  if  these  are  successful  the  days  of  the  Constitu 
tion  are  numbered. 

The  continued  assaults  upon  the  South,  upon  its  character,  its  con 
stitutional  rights,  and  its  institutions,  and  the  systematic  perseverance 
and  bitter  spirit  with  which  these  are  pursued,  while  they  warn  the 
Democratic  party  of  the  danger,  should  also  incite  it  to  united  and 
vigorous  action.  They  warn  it,  too,  that  the  time  has  come  when 
all  other  differences  which  may  have  divided  it  should  give  way  to 
the  duty  of  defending  the  Constitution,  and  when  that  great  party, 


48  Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass. 

coeval  with  the  Government,  should  be  united  as  one  man  for  the 
accomplishment  of  the  work  to  which  it  is  now  called,  and  before  it 
it  is  too  late. 

When  the  struggle  that  he  apprehended  had  passed  the 
States  still  lived,  and  LEWIS  CASS  still  lived  to  see  that  the 
principles  of  government  he  had  so  long  and  ably  advocated 
were  adequate,  far  beyond  his  hopes  and  expectations,  to  the 
restoration  to  the  Union  of  these  imperishable  States.  His 
belief  was  that  the  sovereign  power  and  life  of  the  States  was 
the  immortal  part  of  the  Union,  as  the  spirit  is  the  immortal 
part  of  man,  and  that  nothing  could  destroy  the  Union  while 
these  living  States  should  maintain  its  perpetuity.  He  saw 
that  if  the  Southern  States  had  perished  nothing  would  have 
remained  but  the  territory  in  which,  and  the  people  through 
whose  powers,  new  States  would  have  to  be  constructed  if  a 
new  Union  was  to  be  formed. 

But  the  States  survived,  and  with  them  the  Union ;  and 
General  CASS  lived  to  witness  that,  under  this  form  of  resto 
ration,  upon  the  basis  of  the  indestructibility  of  the  States, 
and  through  their  rights  as  States,  the  people  were  again 
brought  within  the  enjoyment  of  the  rights  and  liberties 
reserved  to  them  and  protected  by  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States. 

He  was  rejoiced  to  find  the  fruits  of  his  labors  so  abun 
dant  and  excellent.  He  belonged  to  the  class  of  men  whose 
honorable  fame  is  recorded  in  the  gratitude  of  succeeding 
generations,  "  for  their  works  do  follow  them." 

The  public  life  of  General  CASS  was  devoted  to  the  prac 
tical  affairs  of  the  country  connected  with  the  great  trust 
committed  to  him  by  the  people.  He  applied  to  these  af 
fairs  the  principles  of  government  that  he  believed  were  cor- 


Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass.  49 

rect,  after  mature  consideration,  and  did  not  stagger  under 
any  responsibility,  however  great;  neither  did  he  diverge 
from  his  line  of  duty  to  conciliate  opposing  opinions.  He 
had  none  of  that  mean  spirit  which  sometimes  makes  cring 
ing  demagogues  of  men  who  are  honored  with  high  places. 
Being  indebted,  as  I  believe,  to  the  principles  of  American  gov 
ernment  in  which  he  was  profoundly  instructed,  and  to  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  and  its  true  and  just  con 
struction,  in  accordance  with  the  views  of  men  like  LEWIS 
CASS  for  whatever  of  liberties  we  now  enjoy,  I  am  sure  that 
I  represent  the  people  of  Alabama  in  doing  honor  and  rev 
erence  to  the  memory  of  this  great  American. 

There*  is  a  rivalry  in  the  thoughts  of  this  generation  as 
to  his  most  distinguishing  characteristic,  whether  it  is  best 
described  by  his  title  of  general,  governor,  jurist,  diploma 
tist,  or  legislator.  It  is  conceded  by  all  the  people  that  in 
either  of  these  great  offices  he  exhibited  eminent  abilities. 

It  is  not  to  the  discredit  of  that  capacity  to  direct  public 
affairs  with  wisdom  which  has  loaded  a  continent  with  evi 
dences  of  the  greatness  of  American  statesmanship  that  it 
has  not  been  acquired  in  the  schools,  or  that  so  many  of  our 
grandest  characters  have  been  developed  and  established,  in 
their  younger  days,  through  the  hardships  of  personal  toil 
and,  frequently,  of  privation. 

In  the  volunteer  army,  in  the  fields  and  workshops,  in 
the  teaching  of  primary  schools,  and  under  the  necessity  of 
labor  for  earning  a  support  and  education  many  of  our  great 
est  men  have  spent  their  boyhood  and  early  manhood.  In 
these  vocations  they  learned  to  know  the  people  and  to  love 
them,  and  under  this  inspiration  they  consecrated  their 
powers,  with  affection  and  self-denial,  to  the  true  purposes 
of  our  Government. 

H.  Mis.  145 4 


50  Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass. 

LEWIS  CASS  was  trained  under  such  influences.  They 
gave  him  faith  and  strength-  and  enriched  him,  as  he  ear 
nestly  and  bravely  followed  the  course  of  duty,  with  the 
grateful  affections  of  the  people,  who  always  felt  the  prouder 
the  higher  he  ascended  in  station  and  power.  His  name 
and  fame  are  identified  with  Michigan  in  a  wray  that  strongly 
resembles  the  historic  relation  between  Thomas  Jefferson 
and  Virginia.  We  think  of  Michigan  and  CASS,  when  we 
think  of  the  history  of  either,  as  being  almost  identical. 

It  may  be  said  of  CASS  and  Michigan  that  they  grew  up 
together.  He  was  made  Territorial  governor  of  Michigan 
in  1813  by  James  Madison  and  held  that  office  for  eighteen 
years.  He  was  ex  officio  superintendent  of  Indian  affairs  in 
the  Northwest  during  the  greater  part  of  his  service  as  gov 
ernor.  Through  his  wise  and  just  administration  he  nego 
tiated  more  than  twenty  treaties  with  the  Indians  and  laid 
the  foundations  of  several  of  the  great  States  of  the  North 
west,  whose  territory  we  thus  freed  from  Indian  occupancy. 
Michigan,  in  1813,  was  almost  at  the  western  verge  of  the 
horizon  of  civilization,  then  called  ' '  the  far  West. ' '  When 
CASS  died  Michigan  was  near  the. center  of  population  in 
the  United  States,  and  now  it  is  thought  of  as  a  part  of  the 
far  East. 

We  boast  continually,  and  why  should  we  not,  of  the  mi 
raculous  growth  of  our  country  in  every  form  of  progress 
ive  development  and  improvement.  But  we  should  never 
forget  to  honor  the  men  who  have  so  provided  in  laws  and 
administration  for  the  exercise  of  these  tremendous  forces, 
that  every  human  being  and  every  interest  has  had  the  free 
and  full  opportunity  to  grow  and  increase  without  molesta 
tion  from  the  powers  that  conduct  governments.  A  prin- 


'Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass.  51 

ciple  is  at  the  bottom  and  around  the  shores  of  this  ocean 
of  human  activities  that  holds  in  restraint  and  tempers  its 
ceaseless  movements. 

In  the  history  of  the  public  life  of  LEWIS  CASS,  it  is 
found  that  he  relied  upon  the  restraints  of  the  Constitu 
tion,  upon  the  legislative  and  executive  powers,  and  their 
faithful  and  self-denying  maintenance,  as  the  earth  with  its 
rock-ribbed  coasts  is  relied  upon  to  keep  the  turbulent  seas 
within  due  bounds. 

His  influence  was  a  positive  power  in  government  and  his 
wisdom  was  accepted  as  a  guide  in  every  strait  in  which 
the  country  was  placed.  He  was  among  the  foremost  men 
of  his  age  in  the  useful  employment  of  his  great  powers  for 
great  public  advantage. 

The  earnest  ardor  of  his  patriotism  was  the  result  of  cir 
cumstances  differing  from  those  that  now  surround  us. 
Now,  we  are  a  rich  and  powerful  people,  who  have  learned 
from  each  other,  in  the  bloodiest  of  all  wars,  that  the  inhe 
rent  power  of  our  population  is  equal  to  any  ambitious  pur 
pose  we  could  desire  to  accomplish,  and  the  fear  or  dread 
of  tire  power  of  any  other  nation  is  a  thought  that  is  not 
entertained.  There  is  now  an  element  of  aggressiveness  in 
the  ardor  of  our  patriotism  without  which  it  is  open  to  sus 
picion. 

LEWIS  CASS  entered  upon  public  life  before  this  Capitol 
was  burned  by  the  British,  and  he  heard  with  dismay  of  the 
flight  of  our  President  from  Washington.  He  did  not  then 
feel  safe,  nor  did  anybody  feel  secure  of  even  the  final  inde 
pendence  of  our  country.  His  ideas  of  patriotic  duty  in 
cluded  personal  sacrifice  and  privation  as  a  debt  to  the  coun 
try  that  was  liable  to  be  paid  in  blood  at  any  day.  When 


52  Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass, 

he  was  a  lad  his  eyes  were  dripping  with  tears  as  he  mourned 
with  all  civilized  nations  over  the  death  of  George  Wash 
ington. 

It  was  in  such  a  period  of  patriotic  sentiment  that  his 
aspirations  were  guided  and  his  ambition  was  chastened. 
This  was  a  good  time  of  preparation  for  a  man  who  was 
destined  to  have  an  influential  voice  in  the  young  Republic. 
He  lived  in  an  atmosphere  that  was  purified  and  blest  with 
the  living  presence  of  George  Washington.  As  he  grew 
older  the  great  intellect  of  Thomas  Jefferson  was  clearing 
the  highway  of  American  constitutional  liberty  of  the  im 
pediments  of  Federalism,  kingcraft,  and  "the  divine  right 
to  rule,"  which  were  so  difficult  to  remove.  In  this  plain 
road  he  laid  his  course  and  held  it  until  he  had  marched 
with  Michigan  to  the  grand  ascendency  we  now  hold,  yet  to 
be  greatly  increased. 

He  considered  in  his  well-balanced  and  courageous  mind 
the  truth  as  it  was  stated  and  expounded  by  this  wonder 
ful  statesman.  He  welcomed  the  Jeffersonian  exigesis  of 
our  Constitution  and  adopted  with  earnest  conviction  the 
plan  and  creed  of  government  in  which  liberty  has  its*  cita 
dels,  and  this  made  him  always  a  thorough  and  conscien 
tious  Democrat.  He  never  departed  from  the  faith,  and  was 
seldom  embarrassed  with  serious  doubts  as  to  his  line  of 
duty.  When  he  was  called  upon  to  exercise  a  doubtful 
power,  he  did  not  rush  forward  with  a  zeal  that  is  born  of 
egotism  or  of  the  lust  of  illicit  authority  and  seize  upon  it. 
He  thought  it  safest  for  the  people  that  he  should  not  too 
broadly  construe  in  his  own  favor  the  limited  powers  dele 
gated  to  him  as  their  representative  in  the  Constitution. 

He  was  the  cherished  friend  of  Andrew  Jackson,  whose 


Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass.  53 

unfailing  judgment  of  men  discovered  in  LEWIS  CASS  the 
highest  elements  of  honor,  power,  and  ability.  He  invited 
General  CASS  into  his  Cabinet  as  Secretary  of  War  at  a 
time  when  that  place  was  conspicuous  in  onr  history  for  its 
great  responsibilities  and  delicate  trusts.  In  this  Depart 
ment  he  has  had  no  superior  for  devotion  to  his  country,  for 
courage  in  the  assertion  of  its  rights,  or  for  tact  in  dealing 
with  its  most  complex  and  important  interests. 

Thus  from  his  boyhood  to  the  full  ripeness  of  his  man 
hood  he  lived  in  the  presence  and  company  of  the  greatest 
men  this  country  or  the  world  has  ever  produced  as  their 
worthy  associate.  Such  associations  gave  early  maturity  to 
his  thoughts  and  convictions  and  added  to  the  strength  and 
impressiveness  of  his  character. 

LEWIS  CASS  was  a  strong  and  self-sustaining  man;  a  cen 
tral  figure,  conspicuous  and  pronounced  in  its  individuality, 
around  which  national  influences  were  grouped  in  powerful 
support  of  national  honor,  pride,  and  progress.  Yet  he  was 
a  plain,  positive,  and  unpretentious  citizen,  who  had  and 
enjoyed  the  sincere  love  and  confidence  of  the  people,  who 
knew  him  by  intuition,  trusted  him  without  reserve,  and 
silently  accredited  him  as  a  protector  of  their  rights  and 
liberties.  He  appeared  amongst  his  great  co-workers  in  the 
councils  of  government  in  bold  prominence,  as  Michigan 
appears  on  the  map  of  the  States,  almost  insular,  strong  in 
resources,  and  peculiarly  endowed  with  the  powers  of  aggres 
sion  and  defense. 

His  name  is  linked  with  that  of  a  State  which  is  destined 
to  a  most  important  influence  in  the  future  of  the  Republic, 
and  in  history  they  will  never  be  separated.  It  is  a  great 
reward  of  enlightened,  faithful,  and  laborious  service  to  the 


54  Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Leivis  Cass. 

country  to  be  thus  identified  with  the  history  of  an  Ameri 
can  State.  The  States  are  imperishable,  and  their  imme 
diate  care  of  the  personal  interests  and  happiness  of  the  peo 
ple  excites  in  the  heart  of  every  true  man  the  deepest  sense 
of  grateful  and  proud  affection. 

LEWIS  CASS  freely  and  fondly  indulged  in  this  filial  regard 
for  the  State  of  Michigan.  He  foresaw  its  splendid  future 
when  he  settled  at  Detroit  and  made  Michigan  his  future 
home. 

Far  retired  from  the  sea-board  Michigan  is,  in  the  com 
mercial  and  military  sense,  a  maritime  State.  It  has  a 
coast-line  longer  than  any  State  in  the  Union  except  Cali 
fornia.  Its  hill  country  abounds  in  iron  and  copper  of  the 
best  quality.  Its  forests  are  a  treasure  of  wealth,  and  its 
arable  lands  yield  grain  and  grasses  in  ample  supply. 

This  great  peninsula  points  to  the  Arctic  circle  across 
the  waist  of  Canada  like  an  outstretched  arm.  Around  its 
coasts  are  commodious  harbors  that  invite  the  trade  and 
commerce  of  many  States,  comprising  some  of  the  most 
productive  areas  of  the  United  States  and  Canada.  Its  com 
mercial  and  military  command  of  the  Great  Lakes  and  their 
shores  is  absolute  when  it  needs  to  be  made  absolute. 

On  its  eastern  face  the  peninsula  of  Michigan  is  on  the 
flank  of  the  water-shed  of  the  St.  Lawrence  River;  and 
upon  its  western  face  it  confronts  the  inlet  from  the  Pacific 
through  the  western  coasts  of  the  British  possessions,  and 
holds  in  easy  command  the  basins  of  Lake  Winnipeg  and 
Hudson's  Bay. 

If  the  behests  of  the  people  of  British  descent  on  this 
continent  shall  ever  require  Canada  and  the  United  States 
to  engage  in  war,  or  to  seriously  contemplate  that  cruel  arbi- 


Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass.  55 

ter  as  the  power  to  decide  questions  provoked  by  ambitions 
rivalries,  we  would  find  in  Michigan  the  true  point  of  strategic 
advantage. 

General  CASS  lived  to  see  the  wonderful  development  of 
Michigan,  and  to  listen  to  the  undivided  opinion  of  Ameri 
cans  as  to  the  future  greatness  and  natural  importance  of 
this  strong  Commonwealth.  CASS  and  Michigan  grew  rap 
idly  and  with  solid  growth.  Michigan  would  have  grown 
without  the  aid  of  his  counsels,  it  is  true,  but  who  can  deny 
that  the  firm  statesmanship  of  LEWIS  CASS  gave  to  Michi 
gan  and  all  the  other  States  a  high  degree  of  security  and 
peace  in  many  dangerous  emergencies?  In  political  affairs 
CASS  took  position  on  the  border  and  in  the  center  of  the 
border  line,  and  looked  out,  like  a  true  and  faithful  senti 
nel  would,  over  the  ways  by  which  an  enemy  might  ap 
proach.  In  his  attitude  towards  his  compeers  he  was  insu-  • 
lated  without  being  separated  from  them.  He  was  united 
in  fervent  attachment  with  his  countrymen  of  all  classes, 
while  he  maintained  his  individuality  with  severe  dignity. 

In  his  diplomatic  career  his  resources  were  strong,  useful, 
and  abundant,  and  were  employed  with  the  highest  advan 
tage  to  his  country.  In  that  service  he  was  measured 
without  disadvantage  by  comparison  with  the  greatest  men 
of  his  day.  Michigan  now  comes  by  invitation  of  Congress 
and  presents  to  the  United  States  the  statue  of  the  man 
upon  whom  she  bestows  her  first  and  highest  honors  in  this 
Capitol. 

Let  these  States  here  assembled  welcome  her  coining 
with  proud  congratulations. 

Should  she  return  another  such  as  LEWIS  CASS  to  this 
Senate,  who  would  not  stand  uncovered  while  he  raised  his 


56  Acceptance  of  the  Statue  oj  Lewis  Cass. 

hand  and  bowed  his  heart  to  swear  that  he  would  support 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States? 

The  whole  country  would  feel  that  in  the  purity  of  that 
pledge  the  Constitution  would  find  another  powerful  sup 
porter  and  defender,  whose  fealty  to  it  would  never  relax 
under  temptation  nor  yield  to  any  human  power. 


REMARKS  OF  MR.  HOAR. 

Mr.  President,  the  Senators  representing  Michigan  and 
Alabama  and  New  Hampshire,  and  our  venerable  and  be 
loved  colleague  who  has  spoken  of  General  CASS  from  his 
personal  recollection,  the  Senator  from  Vermont  [Mr.  Mor- 
rill],  have  performed  adequately  all  the  duty  which  this 
occasion  requires  of  Senators  so  far  as  is  necessary  to  mark 
the  public  gratitude  to  the  State  of  Michigan  for  the  gift  of 
this  statue  of  her  illustrious  citizen.  But  I  think  one  other 
observation  ought  to  be  made  indicating  the  special  cause 
'we  have  of  gratitude  to  that  State  for  its  great  wisdom  and 
discrimination  in  the  selection  of  the  artist  who  has  contrib 
uted  this  interesting  portraiture  to  the  art  treasures  of  the 
Capitol. 

I  have  seen  the  statue,  and  without  claiming  for  myself 
any  experience  or  taste  which  entitles  me  to  pronounce  a 
judgment  more  than  all  other  men,  I  think  I  am  not  mis 
taken  in  affirming  that  this  statue  will  be  regarded  always  as 
one  of  the  very  finest,  if  not  the  very  finest  work  of  its  kind, 
which  has  yet  been  contributed  to  our  gallery  under  the 
joint  resolution  passed  in  1864.  It  is  a  figure,  manifestly 


Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass.  57 

accurate  in  portraiture,  and  not  only  that,  but  it  is  a  figure 
full  of  strength,  spirit,  and  life. 

The  young  artist  who  is  the  author  of  this  work,  although 
not  yet  mature  in  his  powers,  has  already  made  himself 
famous  by  The  Minute  Man  at  Concord,  one  of  the  very  few 
American  statues  that  are  alive;  by  the  beautiful  statue  of 
John  Harvard,  made  for  the  University  at  Cambridge;  by 
the  ideal  figures  upon  the  Boston  post-office,  and  by  that 
most  wonderful  portrait  bust  which  represents  and  pre 
serves  in  the  memory  of  those  who  knew  him  the  venerable 
features  of  our  illustrious  poet  and  sage,  Ralph  Waldo  Em 
erson. 

The  State  of  Michigan  has  been  both  wise  and  fortunate 
in  the  selection  of  the  artist,  and  that  also  ought  to  be  men 
tioned  as  one  of  the  reasons  for  the  public  gratitude  to  the 
people  of  that  State. 

Mr.  STOCKBRIDGE.  Mr.  President,  I  second  the  motion 
for  the  adoption  of  the  pending  resolutions. 

The  PRESIDENT  pro  tcmpore.  The  question  is  on  agree 
ing  to  the  resolutions  offered  by  the  Senator  from  Michigan 
[Mr.  Palmer]. 

The  resolutions  were  agreed  to  unanimously. 


PROCEEDINGS  IN   THE  HOUSE  OF   REPRE 
SENTATIVES. 

FEBRUARY  20,  1889. 

The  SPEAKER  pro  tempore  laid  before  the  House  the  fol 
lowing  resolutions : 

Resolved  by  the  Senate  (the  House  of  Representatives  concurring), 
That  the  thanks  of  Congress  be  tendered  to  the  governor,  and  through 
him  to  the  people  of  the  State  of  Michigan,  for  the  statue  of  LEWIS 
CASS,  whose  name  is  so  conspicuously  connected  with  the  develop 
ment  of  the  Northwest  Territory  and  with  eminent  services  to  his 
State  and  country  both  at  home  and  abroad. 

Resolved,  That  the  statue  is  accepted  in  the  name  of  the  nation 
and  assigned  a  place  in  the  old  Hall  of  Representatives,  and  that  a 
copy  of  these  resolutions,  signed  by  the  President  of  the  Senate  and 
the  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  be  transmitted  to  the 
governor  of  the  State  of  Michigan. 

Mr.  CHIPMAN.  Mr.  Speaker,  I  ask  by  unanimous  consent 
that  to-morrow  at  half  past  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon 
these  resolutions  be  considered  by  the  House. 

The  SPEAKER  pro  tempore.  Is  there  objection? 

Mr.  O'NEALL,  of  Indiana,  and  Mr.  LYNCH  objected. 

Mr.  CHIPMAN.   Mr.  Speaker,  no  one  rises  to  object. 

The  SPEAKER  pro  tempore.  The  gentleman  from  Penn 
sylvania  [Mr.  Lynch]  and  the  gentleman  from  Indiana  [Mr. 
O'Neall]  have  objected. 

Mr.  CHIPMAN.  Well,   then,  I  will  put. the  hour  at  four 

o'clock  in  the  afternoon. 
58 


Acceptance  of  the  Slaliii  of  Lewis  Cass.  59 

Mr.  RANDALL.  These  resolutions  can  be  considered  by 
the  House,  and  after  they  have  been  disposed  of  the  House 
can  then  proceed  to  other  business. 

Mr.  CHIPMAN.  I  will  say  four  o'clock  to-morrow  after 
noon. 

Mr.  LYNCH.   I  object. 

The  SPEAKER  pro  temporc.  If  there  be  no  objection,  the 
resohitions  will  be  referred  to  the  Committee  on  the  Library. 

There  was  no  objection,  and  it  was  so  ordered. 

Mr.  ALLEN,  of  Michigan.  Mr.  Speaker,  in  view  of  the 
refusal  to  take  up  and  consider  the  resolutions  which  have 
come  from  the  Senate  accepting  the  statue  of  LEWIS  CASS, 
will  the  Speaker  please  tell  us  what  we  are  to  do  with  the 
statue  if  it  is  not  accepted  ? 

The  SPEAKER  pro  tempore.  That  is  hardly  a  parliament 
ary  inquiry. 

A  MEMBER.  Take  an  evening  session  to  the  resolutions. 

FEBRUARY  21,  1889. 

Mr.  CHIPMAN.  The  gentleman  from  Georgia  [Mr. 
Blount]  permits  me  to  submit  a  proposition  fixing  an  even 
ing  session  for  the  action  of  the  House  on  the  concurrent 
resolution  accepting  the  statue  of  General  CASS. 

The  SPEAKER.   The  Clerk  will  read  the  resolution. 

The  Clerk  read  as  follows: 

Resolved,  That  the  Committee  on  the  Library  are  discharged  from 
the  consideration  of  the  concurrent  resolution  to  accept  the  statue  of 
General  LEWIS  CASS,  presented  to  the  United  States  by  the  State  of 
Michigan  ;  and  that  a  recess  be  taken  at  five  o'clock  this  afternoon 
until  half-past  seven  o'clock  this  evening,  at  which  time  the  House, 
shall  be  in  session  to  consider  said  resolution  and  no  other  business ; 
and  that  the  said  session  shall  adjourn  not  later  than  ten  o'clock. 


60  Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lezvis  Cass. 

The  SPEAKER.   Is  there  objection  to  agreeing  to  this  res 
olution? 

Mr.    CRISP.   I  will  not  object  if  any  other  night  than 
to-night  be  named,  because  it  is  the  intention  to  have  a 
caucus  to-night. 

Mr.  CHIPMAN.  Then  I  suggest  Saturday  night. 

Mr.  MILLS.   What  is  this  proposition  ? 

The  SPEAKER.  The  gentleman  from  Michigan  desires 
unanimous  consent  for  the  adoption  of  a  resolution  fixing  a 
session  for  Saturday  night  for  the  acceptance  of  the  statue 
of  General  LEWIS  CASS.  The  Chair  will  state  that  on  Sat 
urday  afternoon,  by  order  of  the  House,  the  resolutions  in 
relation  to  the  death  of  the  late  Representative  Burnes 
will  be  taken  up  by  the  House,  and  that  in  such  cases  it  is 
usual  to  adjourn  at  the  conclusion  of  the  eulogies,  instead 
of  taking  a  recess. 

Mr.  McMiLLiN.  Then  I  suggest  Monday  night. 

Mr.  RANDALL.  Will  that  involve  an  adjournment  at  any 
particular  hour  on  Monday  night  ? 

The  SPEAKER.  The  proposition  is  for  a  recess  at  five 
o'clock  and  an  adjournment  at  ten. 

Mr.  RANDALL.  Well,  I  object  to  the  provision  for  an  ad 
journment  at  ten  o'clock. 

The  SPEAKER.  Objection  being  made,  the  resolution  is 
not  before  the  House. 

FEBRUARY  28,  1889. 

Mr.  CHIPMAN.  Mr.  Speaker,  I  ask  unanimous  consent 
that  the  Committee  on  the  Library  be  discharged  from  the 
further  consideration  of  the  Senate  concurrent  resolutions 
providing  for  the  acceptance  of  the  statue  of  LEWIS  CASS, 


Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass.  61 

presented  by  the  State  of  Michigan  to  the  United  States, 
and  put  the  same  upon  their  passage. 

There  was  no  objection. 

The  concurrent  resolutions  were  considered  ;  they  are  as 
follows. 

Resolved  by  the  Senate  (the  House  of  Representatives  concurring), 
That  the  thanks  of  Congress  be  tendered  to  the  governor,  and  through 
him  to  the  people  of  the  State  of  Michigan,  for  the  statue  of  LEWIS 
CASS,  whose  name  is  so  conspicuously  connected  with  the  develop 
ment  of  the  Northwest  Territory  and  with  eminent  services  to  his 
State  and  country  both  at  home  and  abroad. 

Resolved,  That  the  statue  is  accepted  in  the  name  of  the  nation 
and  assigned  a  place  in  the  old  Hall  of  the  House  of  Representa 
tives,  and  that  a  copy  of  these  resolutions,  signed  by  the  President 
of  the  Senate  and  the  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  be 
transmitted  to  the  governor  of  the  State  of  Michigan. 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  CHIPMAN. 

Mr.  Speaker,  the  State  of  Michigan  presents  and  asks  the 
United  States  to  accept  a  statue  of  General  LEWIS  CASS.  A 
man  ought  to  have  exemplified  the  civic  virtues  nobly 
while  he  was  living  to  deserve  this  tribute  when  he  is  dead. 

It  is  a  solemn  act  to  place  a  name  on  the  nation's  roll  of 
honor.  That  roll  is  a  message  to  posterity.  It  ought  never 
to  exploit  the  accident  of  divine  right — Fate's  most  cruel 
jest  on  men — or  be  sullied  by  meretricious  greatness.  For 
tunate,  indeed,  is  the  country  which  has  children  worthy  of 
this  glory,  and  fortunate,  thrice  fortunate,  is  America  in  a 
goodly  company  of  sages,  patriots,  statesmen,  whose  fame 
illuminates  her  history  and  deserves  the  reverence  of  her 


0?  TH1 

[TJIIVBRSITY; 


62  Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass. 

people.     High  in  the  ranks  of  this  company  stood  General 
CASS. 

He  was  conspicuous  even  among  them  for  his  robust 
Americanism.  He  was  fortunate  in  opportunities  as  a  man 
of  action  and  as  a  man  of  counsel.  His  career  was  varied 
and  remarkable.  As  a  soldier  in  the  war  of  1812,  as  gov 
ernor  of  the  Territory  of  Michigan  and  pacificator  of  the 
Indian  tribes,  as  Secretary  of  War  and  minister  to  France, 
as  Senator  in  Congress  and  Secretary  of  State,  in  speech 
and  in  action,  his  patriotism  shone  pure  and  strong  in  the 
light  of  his  great  abilities.  He  loved  his  country.  He  be 
lieved  in  her  institutions,  in  the  capacity  and  the  right  of 
her  people  to  govern  themselves.  He  was  not  shamefaced 
in  this  faith.  He  was  not  a  servile  imitator  of  foreign  man 
ners,  but  of  simple  American  life,  delighting  in  literature 
and  art,  and  content  with  the  ways  of  the  folk  among  whom 
his  lot  was  cast. 

The  patriotism  we  honor  here  to-night  was  at  one  time 
the  subject  of  ridicule,  and  attributed  to  unworthy  motives. 
This  was  when  he  made  his  declaration  of  ' '  fifty-four  forty 
or  fight"  on  the  northwestern  boundary  question.  Per 
haps,  sir,  we  of  this  generation  will  see  how  mean  the  pas 
sions  of  the  hour  made  us  to  our  political  opponents  and 
be  ashamed  that  we  vilify  men  who  are  worthy  of  statues 
erected  by  a  grateful  country.  But,  sir,  General  CASS'S  pa 
triotism  was  far-reaching.  It  was  the  love  of  .country  which 
inspires  a  statesman  with  grand  thoughts  for  her  prosperity 
and  independence.  He  knew  our  place  among  the  nations. 
His  opposition  to  the  quintuple  treaty,  unless  it  was  accom 
panied  with  a  renunciation  of  the  right  of  search  as  a  prin 
ciple  of  international  law,  and  his  broad  interpretation  of 


Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass.  63 

the  Monroe  doctrine,  prove  that  he  pierced  the  future  with 
his  prescience. 

Room,  freedom  for  our  commerce,  are  the  great  necessi 
ties  if  we  would  keep  abreast  or  ahead  of  the  nations.  We 
see  now  with  a  clearer  vision.  The  horizon  of  civilization 
has  expanded.  There  are  no  longer  dark  continents,  waste 
places,  but  the  earth  rounds  before  us  like  an  open  book, 
each  page  of  which  is  radiant  with  the  destiny  of  our  com 
merce.  This  is  the  world  in  which  General  CASS  desired 
his  country  to  be  pre-eminent. 

Sir,  we  know  that  he  is  worthy  of  this  honor  we  do  to 
his  memory.  Patriotism  is  the  virtue  of  statesmen.  It 
casts  a  glamour  over  their  lives  and  throws  their  shadows 
boldly  on  the  future. 

There  is,  sir,  an  aspect  of  General  CASS'S  career  which 
brings  him  very  near  to  the  hearts  of  the  men  of  the  West. 
The  great  States  of  Ohio,  Michigan,  Illinois,  Wisconsin, 
Iowa,  Minnesota  are  all  indebted  to  his  facility  in  the  man 
agement  of  the  Indian  tribes.  To  us  of  Michigan  he  was 
as  a  father,  a  benefactor.  He  reared  the  roof-trees  of  our 
homes  and  kindled  the  fires  on  our  hearth-stones. 

So  we,  the  children  and  grandchildren  of  the  men  who 
fought  side  by  side  with  him  against  savage  man  and  un 
tamed  nature,  do  him  this  reverence.  We  ask  the  nation  to 
rear  his  image  in  the  national  Pantheon,  that  our  children's 
children  may  gaze  on  the  "  counterfeit  presentment "  of  a 
virtue  which  adorned  her  history  and  blessed  mankind. 
My  fervent  prayer  is  that  that  sacred  shrine  shall  never  be 
desecrated  by  honors  showered  on  kings  or  oppressors  of 
God's  people,  but  that  forever  it  shall  chronicle  the  freedom, 
the  greatness,  the  prosperity,  and  the  happiness  of  our 
country.  [Applause.  ] 


64  Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass. 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  RANDALL. 

I  unite  with  the  Representatives  of  the  State  of  Michigan 
with  all  my  heart  in  doing  honor  to  the  memory  of  LEWIS 
CASS.  He  was,  as  much  as  any  one  man  could  be,  the 
founder  and  builder-tip  of  that  prosperous  Commonwealth 
which  sits  so  proudly  amid  our  northern  inland  seas. 

He  foresaw  with  the  instinct  of  a  statesman  the  coming 
glory  of  his  country,  and  at  the  beginning  as  at  the  close 
of  his  career  he  advocated  the  principles  and  supported  the 
public  policy  upon  which  our  liberties  and  independence  as 
a  nation  depend  for  preservation. 

If  I  were  to  select  one  characteristic  in  his  public  life  which 
dominated  all  his  thoughts,  words,  and  actions,  it  would  be 
his  intense  love  of  country.  No  matter  how  dark  and  threat 
ening  was  the  outlook,  our  enemies  might  be  many  and  their 
hatred  bitter,  yet  his  heart  never  quailed;  but  with  pen, 
voice,  and  sword  he  battled  for  the  rights  and  honor  of  his 
country,  for  the  general  welfare,  and  for  the  melioration  of 
the  human  race.  . 

When  Burr's  mysterious  conspiracy  was  hatching  in  the 
then  wilderness  of  Ohio,  Thomas  Jefferson  detected  and  ex 
posed  the  treason  before  it  got  beyond  control,  and  LEWIS 
CASS,  then  a  young  lawyer  and  member  of  the  Ohio  legis 
lature,  drafted  legislation  which  had  the  effect  to  destroy  the' 
projected  expedition  and  restore  public  tranquillity. 

When  appointed  superintendent  of  Indian  affairs  his  un 
surpassed  mental  and  physical  energy  was  tested  and  strained 
to  the  utmost.  Throughout  Michigan  Territory,  of  which 


Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass.  65 

he  was  second  Territorial  governor,  wandering  bands  of 
Indians  were  a  constant  menace  to  the  peace  and  growth  of 
the  white  settlements.  ' '  They  had  in  two  wars  been  em 
ployed  by  the  British  against  the  Americans,  and  they  were 
regular  pensioners  on  British  bounty."  He  made  seven 
teen  treaties,  with  the  Wyandotte,  Seneca,  Delaware,  Shaw- 
nee,  Pottawatomie,  Ottawa,  and  Chippewa  tribes  of  Indians, 
won  their  respect  and  confidence  by  honest  dealing  and  firm 
and  resolute  administration,  and  from  a  position  of  hostility 
made  them  our  good  and  fast  friends. 

He  explored  the  whole  country,  and  in  his  birch  canoe 
traversed  thousands  of  miles  un visited  before,  save  by  the 
Jesuit  fathers  or  the  hunters  who  pursued  the  valuable  fur- 
bearing  animals  of  that  region.  He  communicated  to  the 
North  American  Review  at  the  time  some  of  the  ablest 
articles  which  have  ever  been  written  on  the  Indian  lan 
guages,  character,  and  history.  He  was  amongst  the  first 
to  appreciate  them  and  improve  their  condition. 

He  was  a  "man  of  sword,  pen,  and  voice,  and  in  all  his 
varied  career  won  renown  in  each  and  every  position.  At 
the  breaking  out  of  the  war  with  Great  Britain  he  served 
with  distinction,  as  might  have  been  expected  of  the  son  of 
Major  Cass,  who  had  fought  in  the  Revolutionary  army  for 
seven  bloody  years  to  help  win  our  independence.  He  after 
ward  took  part  in  the  campaigns  of  Harrison,  which  ended 
in  the  destruction  of  the  British  army  in  western  Canada, 
the  killing  of  Tecumseh,  and  the  flight  and  disgrace  of  Proc 
tor. 

Cooley,  in  his  "Michigan:  A  History  of  Governments," 
sums  up  this  part  of  CASS'S  public  life  as  follows:  ' 

There  was  some  feeling  of  Territorial  pride  that  Jackson  had  looked 
to  this  distant  region  for  a  member  of  his  Cabinet,  but  the  people  of 
H.  Mis.  145 .5 


66  Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass. 

the  Territory  parted  with  the  governor  with  great  reluctance.  He 
had  not  only  managed  the  public  affairs  with  ability  and  unques 
tioned  integrity,  but  his  example  had  been  excellent  and  his  influence 
of  the  best.  Governing  frontier  settlements,  where  rough  characters 
abounded  and  roystering  habits  prevailed,  he  was  always  in  his  own 
deportment  courteous  and  complacent,  always  abstemious,  always 
self-respecting;  and  as  unexceptionable  in  his  private  character  and 
in  all  his  domestic  and  social  relations  as  he  was  in  his  public  capac 
ity  and  deportment.  Permanent  American  settlement  may  be  said 
to  have  begun  with  him;  and  it  was  a  great  and  lasting  boon  to 
Michigan  when  it  was  given  a  governor  at  once  so  able,  so  patriotic, 
so  attentive  to  his  duties,  and  so  worthy  in  his  public  and  private 
life  of  respect  and  esteem. 

As  Secretary  of  War  in  Andrew  Jackson's  Cabinet,  he 
was  pronounced,  vigorous,  and  emphatic  in  his  hostility  to 
the  doctrine  of  nullification  of  the  laws,  and  long  afterward, 
in  his  old  age,  when  Secretary  of  State  in  Buchanan's  ad 
ministration,  in  i86o-'6i,  he  spoke  with  no  uncertain  voice 
in  favor  of  the  maintenance  of  the  Union  at  all  hazards  and 
at  every  cost.  He  lived  to  see  the  civil  war  brought  to  a 
successful  close  in  behalf  of  the  Union,  and  to  see  the  coun 
try  out  of  her  evil  days  start  upon  a  career  of  prosperity  and 
greatness  which  is  the  marvel  of  the  age  and  without  par 
allel  in  ancient  times. 

When  Great  Britain  delayed,  upon  one  pretext  and  an 
other,  to  turn  over  to  the  United  States  the  fortifications 
within  our  lines,  and  harassed  our  border  with  threatened 
Indian  forays,  contrary  to  the  stipulations  of  the  treaty  of 
peace,  and  when  upon  the  high  seas  Great  Britain  assumed 
the  right  to  visit  and  search  our  ships,  as  minister  to  France 
he  drew  up  an  impassioned  appeal  to  that  country,  which 
had  much  to  do  in  exposing  the  arrogance  and  injustice  of 
the  claim. 


Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass.  67 

Whenever  the  way  was  to  be  cleared  for  the  future  which 
he  saw  so  clearly  opening  up  for  his  country  he  was  among 
the  first  to  set  to  work  and  was  among  the  most  able  and 
successful  leaders.  He  denied  the  doctrine  of  perpetual  alle 
giance,  assisted  in  making  our  flag  respected  on  every  sea, 
stoutly  defended  the  Monroe  doctrine  in  respect  to  the 
American  continent,  and,  so  far  as  one  man  could,  pro 
moted  the  peace,  happiness,  and  glory  of  his  country. 

In  1850,  when  the  slavery  agitation  pervaded  the  whole 
land,  and  the  wisest  and  most  fearless  stood  aghast  at  the 
threatened  danger  to  the  Government,  in  that  hour  of  great 
peril  LEWIS  CASS'S  name  was  put  second  by  a  solemn  re 
solve  of  the  Senate — second  only  to  that  of  Henry  Clay,  the 
great  pacificator — in  behalf  of  honorable  adjustment.  Noth 
ing  could  better  display  the  confidence  then  reposed  in  his 
ability  and  sense  of  justice. 

While  he  was  resolute  and  exacting  for  his  country,  he 
was  in  his  private  life  retiring,  unostentatious,  frugal,  sym 
pathetic,  and  considerate  in  his  relations  with  those  he  came 
in  contact  with. 

Let  me  close  by  repeating  two  sentences  from  General 
CASS'S  writings,  which  give  a  good  insight  into  his  char 
acter.  He  said : 

For  myself,  I  have  no  belief  in  that  greatness  which  is  too  great  to 
mingle  with  the  details  of  life. 

In  another  place  he  said  : 

He  who  occupies  the  loneliest  cabin  upon  the  very  verge  of  civili 
zation  has  just  as  important  a  part  to  play  in  the  fate  of  our  country 
as  the  denizen  of  the  proudest  city  in  the  land. 

These  utterances  I  commend  heartily  both  in  spirit  and 
letter,  as  a  guide  to  all  in  public  life.  [Applause.] 


68  Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass. 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  O'DONNELL 

Mr.  Speaker,  in  the  year  1864  an  invitation  was  extended 
to  the  different  States  of  this  Union  by  the  national  Con 
gress  to  present  the  statues  of  two  of  their  deceased  citizens, 
to  be  placed  in  Statuary  Hall,  in  the  nation's  Capitol.  The 
works  in  sculpture  were  to  represent  those  ' '  illustrious  for 
their  heroic  renown  or  distinguished  by  civil  or  military 
services."  Nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century  has  elapsed  since 
this  action  of  the  Congress.  The  State  of  Michigan  to-day 
makes  its  contribution  in  the  statue  of  her  illustrious  pio 
neer,  soldier,  and  statesman,  General  LEWIS  CASS,  who 
served  the  State  and  nation  for  more  than  half  a  century, 
always  to  the  advantage  of  the  people  and  promotion  of  the 
glory  of  the  Republic.  His  fame  was  not  built  upon  the 
fluctuating  wave  of  popular  party  favor,  but  on  service  for 
his  country  and  achievements  for  the  welfare  of  the  nation. 
Now,  the  people  of  the  peninsular  State  who  cherish  his 
memory  and  the  deeds  of  his  life  unite  in  presenting  this 
memorial  to  the  worth  of  the  foremost  man  in  their  history, 
the  man  who  aided  so  much  in  building  up  their  Common 
wealth  and  making  secure  the  great  experiment  of  self-gov 
ernment  on  this  continent. 

LEWIS  CASS  was  the  second  governor  of  Michigan  Terri 
tory.  As  its  executive  he  governed  wisely  for  seventeen 
years,  taking  office  in  1813  and  continuing  until  1830.  His 
sword  had  helped  to  win  freedom  to  the  great  Northwest. 
He  was  the  fifth  citken  chosen  to  represent  the  young  State 
in  the  Senate  of  the  nation,  and  in  that  high  body  he  served 


Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass.  69 

for  twelve  years.  He  was  called  to  the  Cabinet  of  President 
Jackson,  and  held  the  portfolio  of  War  for  four  years,  to  be 
transferred  to  the  French  court  as  envoy  extraordinary  and 
minister  plenipotentiary,  which  place  he  graced  for  six 
5'ears.  His  wisdom  and  discretion  averted  trouble  between 
the  two  countries  and  restored  friendly  relations. 

While  at  this  post  he  prevented  the  ratification  of  the 
quintuple  treaty  and  thereby  prohibited  the  establishment 
of  the  right  of  search  on  the  high  seas,  so  strenuously  as 
serted  by  England.  As  Secretary  of  State  he  served  for 
nearly  four  years,  resigning  a  few  weeks  prior  to  the  close 
of  the  administration  of  President  Buchanan.  I  have  given 
a  hasty  review  of  the  official  life  of  lyEwiS  CASS.  It  em 
braces  a  period  of  fifty-seven  years  of  service,  as  legislator, 
soldier,  executive,  cabinet  officer,  and  diplomate.  I  believe 
but  one  citizen  exceeded  that  length  of  service — John 
Quincy  Adams. 

Michigan  owes  much  to  LEWIS  CASS  for  its  proud  emi 
nence  in  the  States  of  the  Union.  As  its  governor  his  great 
abilities  were  devoted  to  the  development  of  its  wonder 
ful  resources.  His  management  of  affairs  connected  with 
the  Indians  was  tempered  with  wisdom  and  justice,  and  his 
treatment  of  the  original  occupants  of  the  soil  was  followed 
by  friendly  feeling  between  the  races.  His  administration 
solved  the  Indian  problem  by  its  firmness  and  equity.  His 
life  began  at  the  close  of  the  last  century.  His  years  from 
early  manhood  were  devoted  to  the  advancement  of  civiliza 
tion,  the  glory  of  his  country,  and  the  progress  of  the  peo 
ple.  His  service  was  so  conspicuous  that  in  1848  he  was 
rewarded  by  the  great  Democratic  party  by  the  nomination 
for  the  Presidency. 


70  Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Leivis  Cass. 

In  the  election  of  that  year  LEWIS  CASS  received  127  elect 
oral  votes  to  163  for  Zachary  Taylor.  The  popular  vote 
aggregated  2,871,908,  divided  as  follows:  CASS  1,220,544; 
Taylor,  1,360,101;  Van  Buren  (Free-soil),  291,263,  giving  a 
plurality  of  139,557  for  Taylor,  leaving  him  a  minority 
President.  In  the  light  of  the  situation  of  parties  political 
to-day,  a  study  of  that  election  is  of  interest.  There  were 
thirty  States,  and  each  of  the  leading  candidates  succeeded 
in  fifteen,  an  equal  division.  General  CASS  was  successful 
in  eight  Northern  States  and  seven  Southern,  while  General 
Taylor  received  a  preponderance  of  votes  in  eight  Southern 
States  and  seven  Northern.  In  the  North  CASS  had  810,460 
and  Taylor  925,472  votes,  while  in  the  South  the  vote  stood 
410,084  for  CASS  and  434,629  for  Taylor.  In  this  eight  to 
seven  contest  the  result  was  determined  by  a  small  majority 
in  three  States  of  the  South.  A  change  of  1,021  votes  in 
each  of  the  three  States  of  Delaware,  Georgia,  and  Louisiana 
would  have  given  the  victory  to  General  CASS,  and  might 
have  changed  the  history  of  the  country. 

The  pivotal  States  of  the  North  were  taken  from  General 
CASS  by  the  letter  to  Nicholson,  dated  December  30,  1847. 
In  that  letter  General  CASS  took  strong  grounds  against  the 
Wilmot  proviso.  He  believed,  to  use  his  own  words,  its 
adoption  ' '  would  weaken,  if  not  impair,  the  Union  of  States, 
and  would  sow  the  seeds  of  future  discord,  which  would 
grow  up  and  ripen  into  an  abundant  harvest  of  calamity." 

It  would  seem  as  if  he  was  forecasting  by  his  fears  the 
horoscope  of  the  future;  to  his  prophetic  eye  the  mists  of 
coming  years  were  lifted.  In  the  same  letter,  while  endeav 
oring  to  protect  what  he  thought  the  constitutional  rights 
of  the  South  by  opposition  to  this  measure  of  the  anti- 


Acceptance  of  the  Statiie  of  Lewis  Cass.  71 

slavery  sentiment,  he  failed  to  solidify  that  section  by  his 
utterance  against  the  institution  of  slavery.  He  said : 

We  may  well  regret  the  existence  of  slavery  in  Southern  States  and 
wish  they  had  been  saved  from  its  introduction. 

In  tlie  great  States  of  the  North  the  waves  of  an  adverse 
popular  sentiment  beat  against  him,  provoked  by  his  es 
pousal  of  what  he  thought  the  rights  of  the  South,  while  that 
portion  failed  him  at  the  last. 

Having  hastily  sketched  the  political  life  and  public 
services  of  the  statesman  of  the  Northwest,  I  desire  to  speak 
of  him  as  a  patriot.  He  loved  his  country  and  her  institu 
tions;  his  life  was  panoplied  in  honest  and  simple  patriot 
ism.  A  reference  to  his  services  in  the  Army  in  the  early 
days  of  the  Republic  attests  his  devotion  to  the  Union.  His 
words  and  votes  in  the  Senate  during  the  war  with  Mexico 
were  always  for  the  nation's  glory  and  in  aid  of  its  soldiers 
and  to  promote  their  triumph. 

In  the  war  for  the  Union  he  occupied  grounds  of  exalted 
patriotism.  He  deplored  the  conflict,  and  fervently  hoped 
the  Union  would  be  undisturbed,  that  the  storm  would  pass. 
He  quitted  the  Cabinet  of  President  Buchanan,  being  unwill 
ing  to  share  longer  the  councils  of  an  administration  where 

o  o 

the  Government  was  not  strongly  maintained.  He  was  un 
able  to  discover  the  intentions  of  a  Government  that  scarcely 
knew  its  own  intentions,  and  withdrew  from  its  deliberations. 
With  the  change  of  administration  CASS  still  hoped  for  recon 
ciliation  between  his  countrymen.  He  abhorred  war,  but 
believed  in  protecting  the  Government.  In  1847  he  wrote: 

All  wars  are  to  be  deprecated  as  well  by  the  statesman  as  by  the 
philanthropist.  They  are  great  evils;  but  there  are  greater  evils  than 
these,  and  submission  to  injustice  is  among  them.  The  nation  which 


72  Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass. 

should  refuse  to  defend  its  rights  and  its  honor  when  assailed  would 
soon  have  neither  to  defend.  • 

He  held  that  in  times  of  peril — 

There  is  one  ark  of  safety  for  us,  and  that  is  an  honest  appeal  to 
the  fundamental  principles  of  our  Union,  and  a  stern  determination 
to  abide  their  dictates. 

No  one  thought  General  CASS  would  hesitate  when  the 
hour  of  trial  came.  As  he  saw  the  country  he  realized  that 
the  quarrel  was  in  its  nature  irreconcilable  and  eternal  as 
the  warfare  between  right  and  wrong.  He  found  the  peo 
ple  of  the  North  divided,  their  views  being  aptly  defined  as 
some  holding  to  the  wisdom  that  desired  war  that  we  might 
have  perpetual  peace,  against  the  folly  that  clamored  for 
peace  that  we  might  have  perpetual  war.  At  last  the  peo 
ple  of  the  North  learned  the  maxim  of  William  of  Orange, 
that  ' '  war  was  preferable  to  a  doubtful  peace. ' ' 

LEWIS  CASS  spoke  for  the  Government  of  his  country  in 
the  hour  when  every  breaker  and  billow  of  the  political 
ocean  was  beating  upon  its  shore.  The  flag  of  the  nation 
was  fired  upon  by  those  in  revolt ;  the  forts  of  the  Govern 
ment  were  seized  by  armed  foes ;  then  there  came  the  great 
uprising  in  the  North.  The  avenging  genius  of  the  North 
men  resented  the  attack  on  the  nation  and  its  flag.  The 
State  of  Michigan  became  a  giant  in  the  fray.  At  the  war 
meeting  in  Detroit,  April  17.,  1861,  the  venerable  states 
man  was  present.  He  was  aided  to  the  platform,  and  there 
the  old  man  spoke  for  his  country.  He  said  : 

I  come  to-day  to  do  honor  to  the  old  flag  that  you  have  raised  to 
the  breeze,  and  which  has  maintained  itself  at  home  and  abroad.  I 
was  born  under  it,  and  have  lived  under  it,  and  I  hope  that  the  last 
hour  that  comes  to  all  may  come  to  me  before  its  stars  are  dimin- 


Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass.  73 

ished  in  number.  Though  I  recognize  the  duty  of  every  American 
citizen  to  stand  by  the  Government,  I  hope  that  that  Almighty  Being 
who  has  so  often  and  so  wonderfully  kept  us  may  preserve  us  from 
civil  war,  and  that  He  will  keep  us  still. 

The  utterances  of  the  old  man  eloquent  kindled  the  pat 
riotic  fires.  His  words  shone  through  the  darkness  of  the 
political  atmosphere  like  characters  of  light. 

It  is  a  pleasing  coincidence  that  the  next  speaker  was 
CASS'S  old  political  antagonist  and  successor  in  the  Senate, 
Zachariah  Chandler,  he  of  rugged  words  and  patriotic  heart, 
loving  the  Union  and  liberty. 

Then  Michigan  was  the  home  of  patriotism.  As  in  an 
cient  Rome,  the  cry  "the  Republic  is  in  danger!"  stilled 
all  divisions,  effaced  all  partisanship,  and  men  became  only 
patriots.  Party  lines  were  obliterated,  and  the  Common 
wealth  became  the  abode  of  patriotic  fervor.  In  a  few  days 
the  First  Regiment  of  Michigan  Volunteers  was  organized, 
and  it  was  the  first  military  organization  from  the  West  to 
defend  the  capital.  This  regiment  was  partly  equipped 
by  LEWIS  CASS.  May  I  be  pardoned,  sir,  if  I  mention  the 
fact  that  a  private  soldier  in  that  command  in  these  Halls 
to-day,  with  loving  reverence,  speaks  of  the  great  statesman? 
In  a  fortnight  the  people  of  the  metropolis  again  assembled 
to  take  counsel  and  prepare  for  the  conflict. 

The  sage  and  patriot,  LEWIS  CASS,  the  warrior  who  broke 
his  sword  on  that  spot  nearly  fifty  years  before  rather  than 
surrender  it  to  a  foreign  foe,  presided  over  the  concourse  of 
patriots.  His  words  kindled  anew  the  patriotic  fires  which 
burned  fiercely  through  the  long  contest,  and  before  the  end 
Michigan  sent  ninety-one  thousand  of  her  sons  to  defend 
the  Union.  At  this  gathering  he  spoke  for  his  country  and 
her  institutions.  He  declared  there  was  but  one  path — 


74  Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass. 

there  was  no  neutral  position  ;  all  must  sustain  the  Gov 
ernment.  He' solemnly  averred  that  he  who  is  not  for  his 
country  is  against  her. 

His  words  were  like  beacons  in  the  upward  path  of  man 
kind.  They  were  uttered  in  those  moments  in  our  history 
when  they  served  to  influence  the  course  of  events  during  a 
long  future.  They  were  potent  in  the  period  of  the  great 
war  that  made  ambition  virtue.  He  who  nearly  a  third  of  a 
century  before  had  issued  the  order  which  put  down  nullifica 
tion  now  called  the  people  to  aid  in  perpetuating  the  Gov 
ernment.  Although  he  was  approaching  that  age  in  life 
when  shadows  foretell  the  nearness  of  evening,  his  days 
were  prolonged  that  he  might  see  the  flag  for  which  he  had 
given  his  early  manhood  triumphant,  the  Union  he  had 
loved  so  well  re-established  and  again  form  one  of  the  main 
bulwarks  of  our  civilization. 

During  all  those  terrible  years  of  conflict  the  aged  war 
rior  watched  with  anxious  solicitude  the  issue  of  the  great 
est  war  of  modern  times — a  conflict  which  illustrated  in 
crimson  colors  the  grandeur,  even  sublimity,  of  American 
valor.  He  saw  the  Government  restored — the  epoch  of 
transition  from  the  old  to  the  new,  where  servitude  should 
not  have  dominion  in  a  country  of  liberty.  Kre  the  great 
heart  ceased  to  throb  he  saw  the  last  furrow  of  war  closed, 
the  transforming  and  renewing  hand  of  time  laid  upon  the 
fortunes  of  his  country,  and  its  people  and  the  nation  enter 
upon  a  new  and  greater  career  of  progress.  -Peace  came  to 
the  troubled  land,  and  then  the  old  man  slept  in  the  peace 
of  the  grave. 

The  life  of  LEWIS  CASS  was  one  illustrative  of  the  genius 
of  our  institutions.  His  youth  was  one  of  poverty,  devoid 


Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass.  75 

of  advantages.  His  education  was  imperfect.  When  he  at 
tained  the  age  of  seventeen  years  he  left  his  native  New 
Hampshire  to  join  the  pioneers  of  the  West.  Being  with 
out  means  he  made  the  journey  through  the  mountain  wilds 
from  New  England  to  Ohio  on  foot.  In  his  new  home  the  peo 
ple  recognized  the  resources  and  courage  of  the  young  man, 
starting  him  on  the  road  that  led  to  highest  places.  Though 
of  limited  education,  his  writings  exhibit  native  ability  and 
high  literary  taste.  In  all  positions  he  was  conscientious, 
industrious,  and  faithful.  All  his  life  he  was  simple-minded, 
pure,  and  admirable,  attaching  friends  and  retaining  them. 
He  came  from  the  people  and  never  forgot  them.  He  was 
devoid  of  the  arts  of  the  demagogue  and  ignorant  of  political 
charlatanry.  To  such  a  fame  and  such  a  life  those  to  come 
can  well  look  for  encouragement  and  inspiration. 

Michigan  presents  this  statue  to  the  nation.  It  represents 
one  who  blazed  the  way  in  her  struggles  to  greatness,  whose 
life  was  a  gracious  emphasis  to  the  loftiest  patriotism,  use 
fulness,  pureness  of  life,  and  devotion  to  duty  and  country. 
More  than  two  decades  have  passed  since  he  entered  into 
rest.  His  memory  was  destined  to  wait  long  for  the  reward 
and  vintage  of  his  toil.  When  our  times  have  melted  into 
haze  others  will  recover  from  distance  the  unstained  record 
of  his  illustrious  career. 

We  place  him  to-day  in  the  American  Pantheon,  among 
the  memorials  of  those  of  heroic  renown  who  have  long 
since  passed  to  the  solemn  shades,  with  that  other  company 
of  distinguished  service  who  people  the  silent  continent  of 
eternity.  In  that  assemblage  he  will  stand — a  step  to  his 
left  the  murdered  Executive,  whose  career  began  as  his 
reached  its  zenith;  to  the  right  another  warrior  in  the  rug- 


76  Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Leivis  Cass. 

ged  leader  of  the  Green  Mountain  boys,  while  to  the  front 
the  eyes  of  stone  forever  gaze  on  the  marble  lineaments  of 
the  noblest  of  the  noble,  the  Father  of  his  Country.  Just 
beyond,  the  author  of  the  Magna  Charta  of  our  rights — the 
declaration  of  a  people's  freedom — silently  watches  the 
constellation.  The  mournful  and  care-worn  features  of  the 
liberator,  the  martyr  President,  surrounded  by  warriors  and 
statesmen,  hold  eternal  vigil  over  the  nation  he  lifted  up  into 
God's  rays  of  freedom.  Orators,  commanders  whose  souls 
went  up  to  heaven  amid  the  clouds  of  battle,  and  those  who 
suffered  and  died,  or  who  toiled  and  wrought  for  the  eleva 
tion  of  mankind,  are  there.  It  is  a  noble  array  of  the  Re 
public's  best  and  good,  a  glorious  company  of  Liberty's 
apostles.  And  now  the  circle  of  glory  widens  to  admit 
LEWIS  CASS  to  a  well-earned  place.  He  is  welcome  to  the 
"  silent  senate  of  the  dead" — a  congress  of  fame  in  perpetual 
session,  ' '  whose  members  have  received  their  high  creden 
tials  at  the  hands  of  History  and  whose  terms  of  office  will 
outlast  the  ages. ' ' 

The  State  of  Michigan  presents  the  statue  of  LEWIS  CASS 
in  lasting  marble.  It  may  perhaps  in  coming  years  crumble 
to  dust,  but  his  memory  is  indestructible  by  all-ravaging 
time.  He  will  live  in  the  sunlight  of  national  gratitude  and 
enduring  fame.  [Applause.] 


Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass.  77 


ADDRESS  OF  MR,  SEYMOUR. 
• 

The  marble  statue  which  Michigan  has  placed  in  Statu 
ary  Hall  is  that  of  a  representative  American.  Born  at  Ex 
eter,  amidst  the  rugged  hills  of  New  Hampshire,  where  he 
received  an  academic  education,  sprung  from  a  sire  of  Rev 
olutionary  fame,  LEWIS  CASS  removed  with  his  parents  in 
1799  to  Wilmington,  Delaware,  where  he  became  employed 
as  teacher.  Subsequently  the  family  emigrated  to  Ohio 
and  settled  on  a  tract  of  land  on  the  Muskingum  River, 
near  Zanesville,  while  LEWIS  remained  at  Marietta  and 
commenced  the  study  of  law  in  the  office  of  Governor  Meigs. 
He  married  Elizabeth  Spencer,  of  Virginia,  was  elected  a 
member  of  the  legislature  of  Ohio,  and  attracted  the  atten 
tion  of  Jefferson  by  a  communication  to  the  President  set 
ting  forth  the  views  of  the  legislature  in  relation  to  the 
alleged  treasonable  intentions  of  Aaron  Burr.  He  was- 
appointed  marshal  of  Ohio  in  1807,  which  office  he  held 
until  1813. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  second  war  with  England  he 
joined  the  forces  of  General  Hull,  was  made  colonel,  and 
afterwards  promoted  to  brigadier-general.  He  was  stationed 
in  command  at  Detroit  and  appointed  governor  of  the  Ter 
ritory  of  Michigan,  and  as  a  part  of  his  labor  negotiated 
twenty-two  distinct  Indian  treaties,  and  conducted  the  ex 
pedition  for  the  exploration  of  the  Northwestern  Territory, 
in  which  he  traveled  upwards  of  4,000  miles.  He  was  ap 
pointed  Secretary  of  War  by  General  Jackson  in  1831, 
which  position  he  resigned  to  accept  that  of  minister  to 


78  Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass. 

France.  Elected  as  United  States  Senator  in  1845,  he  re 
signed  when  nominated  for  President  in  1848,  and  after  his 
defeat  was  re-elected  to  the  Senate,  and  subsequently,  in 
1857,  he  was  appointed  Secretary  of  State  by  President 
Buchanan,  but  resigned  th?  position  when  the  President 
refused  to  re-enforce  Major  Anderson  and  reprovision  Fort 
Sumter.  His  resignation  terminated  a  public  career  of  fifty- 
six  years.  His  varied  experience  as  teacher,  lawyer,  sol 
dier,  and  statesman  gave  him  that  cosmopolitan  character 
so  pre-eminently  American.  Drifting  from  Eastern  to  front 
ier  life,  engaging  in  different  avocations,  he  acquired  those 
elements  of  self-reliance  and  self-confidence  which  qualified 
him  for  the  positions  of  trust  and  responsibility  offered  him 
during  his  eventful  life.  His  industrious  habits  fitted  him 
for  every  sphere  he  was  called  upon  to  fill.  Practice  made 
him  a  speaker  and  eloquence  waited  on  his  toil.  He  was  a 
thorough  partisan  and  as  consistent  a  practical  Democrat 
as  the  constitutional  mixture  of  personal  and  State  rights 
would  allow.  He  loved  his  race  and  his  country.  His 
inner  feelings,  and  ofttimes  his  outward  expressions,  reached 
out  to  humanity  and  caused  him  to  deplore,  like  Jefferson, 
his  great  teacher  and  idol,  a  condition  which  confronted  his 
country,  but  which  both  were  unable  to  mend. 

To  keep  in  check  two  opposing  forces  continually  seek 
ing  opposite  directions,  and  by  the  friction  engendered 
continually  requiring  concessions,  was  the  problem  he  al 
ways  attempted  to  solve  on  the  line  of  constitutional  right 
and  unity.  He  was  formed  in  that  stern  mold  in  which 
New  England  climate  and  New  England  teachings  im 
pressed  and  reared  their  hardy  sons.  The  town  meeting, 
that  school  and  basis  of  New  England  politics,  educated 


Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass.  79 

him  in  strict  construction  of  delegated  or  Federal  powers, 
with  a  liberal  belief  in  the  large  reservation  of  popular  or 
State  rights.  The  study  of  the  law  confirmed  his  mental 
leanings,  and  frontier  life  broadened  out  his  views  of  pop 
ular  and  squatter  rights  in  local  and  Territorial  control. 
As  a  soldier,  he  was  aggressive  and  confident.  Indigna 
tion  possessed  his  soul  when  he  found  himself  and  his  army 
included,  as  he  believed,  in  the  unnecessary  capitulation  of 
Hull.  His  military  ability  found  insufficient  scope  in  the 
extent  or  range  of  his  military  experiences.  The  times 
were  not  ripe  for  its  development.  What  success  might 
have  been  his  in  a  wider  field  with  larger  service  the 
prophets  or  panegyrists  of  his  time  have  not  intimated. 
As  a  diplomate,  he  was  tenacious  and  defiant.  He  roused 
the  ire  of  the  British  public  by  his  vigorous  protest  against 
the  quintuple  treaty,  and  strengthened  the  efforts  of  party 
friends  by  his  persistent  advocacy  of  the  line  of  ' '  fifty-four 
forty"  in  the  Oregon  controversy.  As  a  legislator,  he  dis 
tinguished  the  commencement  of  his  official  career  in  the 
Ohio  legislature  by  the  framing  and  passage  of  a  law  au 
thorizing  the  arrest  of  men  and  boats  in  a  supposed  treason 
able  expedition  down  the  river. 

Loyalty  and  love  of  country  marked  the  beginnings  of 
his  public  life.  In  fealty  to  party  he  had  few  superiors. 
He  critically  analyzed  the  measures  presented  on  the  line 
of  constitutional  power,  and  attempted  to  smooth  obedience 
by  concession  to  popular  rights.  On  the  passage  of  the 
fugitive-slave  law  he  refrained  from  voting,  though  occu 
pying  his  seat  in  the  Senate,  because  the  amendment  he 
offered  was  defeated  allowing  trial  by  jury  if  demanded  in 
the  State  where  the  fugitive  resided.  He  gave  his  adhesion 


80  Acceptance  oj  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass. 

and  support  to  the  law  after  its  passage.  He  regarded  with 
disfavor  the  practical  repeal  of  the  compromise  measures  of 
1820,  but  voted  for  the  Kansas  and  Nebraska  bill  on  the 
ground  of  squatter  and  constitutional  right.  He  favored 
the  election  of  James  Buchanan,  but  repudiated  his  inaction 
towards  Anderson  and  Sumter.  As  the  Declaration  of  In 
dependence  was  the  basis  and  groundwork  of  the  Constitu 
tion,  so  was  the  nullification  proclamation  of  Andrew  Jack 
son  the  guide  and  basis  of  national  action  in  the  subsequent 
maintenance  of  the  Union. 

To  this  creed  of  principles  LEWIS  CASS  adhered,  and  left 
the  Cabinet  of  Buchanan  in  support  of  a  necessary  construc 
tion  of  Federal  power  preservative  of  the  nationality  of  his 
country.  He  brooked  no  action  or  theory  in  early  or  later 
life  which  aimed  at  the  impairment  of  Federal  unity.  He 
was  a  Unionist  with  all  the  conditions  of  compromise  and 
interpretation  which  seemed  necessary  to  the  maintenance 
and  enforcement  of  the  Constitution.  That  instrument 
was,  in  his  view,  an  absolute  necessity  to  the  continuance 
of  national  unity,  and  its  preservation  the  only  guaranty 
of  substantial  protection  to  popular  rights  on  this  conti 
nent.  He  represented  in  his  life  a  connecting  link  between 
the  early  development  and  later  growth  of  our  country,  and 
left  the  impress  of  his  character  and  statesmanship  not  only 
upon  Michigan  but  the  growing  West.  Industrious,  tem 
perate,  and  economical  in  his  habits,  he  lived  neither  in 
parsimony  nor  ostentation.  Simplicity  and  frugality  ever 
distinguished  him. 

The  purity  of  his  life  was  unquestioned.  Cultured,  self- 
reliant,  and  determined,  he  was  the  embodiment  of  firm 
ness  and  courage.  Some  one  wrote,  ' '  He  is  now  ill  with 


Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass.  81 

the  ague,  the  only  thing  that  can  shake  him."  Conserva 
tism  restrained  his  impulses.  The  key-note  of  his  political 
career  was  the  maintenance  of  the  Union  under  the  Consti 
tution.  For  this  his  sacrifices  were  made.  When  that  Con 
stitution  was  assailed  and  the  integrity  of  the  Union  threat 
ened  he  left  an  administration  he  could  no  longer  indorse, 
returned  to  his  people  and  gave  the  influence  of  his  char 
acter  and  the  wisdom  of  his  counsel  in  declining  years  to 
his  practical  and  only  political  creed.  Covering  himself 
with  glory  as  with  a  garment  by  this  crowning  act  of  his 
official  life,  his  name  went  down  to  history  honored  with 
the  plaudits  of  his  countrymen.  As  we  review  his  charac 
ter  so  much  the  more  shall  we  revere  his  memory.  It  was 
permitted  him  to  see  the  Union  preserved  through  the  arbit 
rament  of  arms  and  catch  a  glimpse  of  its  increasing  strength 
when  purged  of  the  disturbing  cause. 

The  empty  sleeve,  the  heavy  thud  of  crutch  and  artificial 
limb  upon  the  floor  of  this  Capitol  aje  constant  reminders 
of  the  cost  and  terrific  character  of  the  struggle  where  patri 
otism  was  equaled  only  by  sectional  devotion,  and  which 
left  us  a  people  of  freemen  and  marked  us  a  nation  of  braves. 
That  something  of  the  extent  of  the  conflict,  should  it  ever 
occur,  was  early  realized  by  him  is  evidenced  by  the  lan 
guage  he  uttered  and  the  concessions  he  made  ;  yet  when 
the  day  of  trial  came  he  voiced  his  position  in  no  uncer 
tain  sound.  His  body  rests  in  the  city  and  State  of  his 
adoption,  and  Michigan  sends  his  statue  to  this  Capitol  as  a 
memorial  of  his  worth  and  a  tribute  to  his  official  services 
and  public  virtues.  The  cold  marble  will  look  down  with 
stern  and  relentless  gaze  upon  the  passing  crowd,  and  men 
in  turn  will  revere  his  character  and  honor  his  patriotism 
H.  Mis.  145 6 


82  Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass. 

and  greatness  as  they  appreciate  his  motives,  and  throw  the 
mantle  of  charity  on  the  times  in  which  he  acted.  [Ap 
plause.  ] 


ADDRESS  OF  MR,  BURROWS. 

Mr.  Speaker,  when  Michigan  determined  to  avail  herself 
of  the  invitation  of  the  National  Government  to  place  in  the 
old  historic  Hall  of  the  House  of  Representatives  statues  of 
two  of  her  most  illustrious  citizens,  she  had  no  difficulty  in 
designating  the  first  worthy  of  this  national  commemoration, 
and  so  chiseled  in  marble  the  form  and  features  of  LEWIS 
CASS.  CASS  and  Michigan  !  Names  linked  in  indissoluble 
union.  His  life  is  interwoven  with  her  own,  and  his  ashes 
repose  in  her  eternal  embrace.  No  other  ot  her  citizens 
was  so  long  or  more  honorably  connected  with  her  history; 
none  other  reflected  greater  or  more  enduring  glory  upon 
her  name.  Identifying  himself  with  her  interests  and  going 
to  her  defense  while  yet  a  Territory,  he  followed  her  fortunes 
in  war  and  peace  through  a  life-time  of  more  than  half  a 
century  with  unwavering  fidelity  and  unflagging  zeal. 

For  a  period  of  more  than  fifty  years  he  was  in  her  service 
and  the  nation's;  and  at  the  close  of  his  official  career  he 
continued  until  the  hour  of  his  death  her  counselor  and  friend. 
Soldier,  governor,  Cabinet  officer,  diplomate,  Senator,  nom 
inee  of  his  party  for  the  Presidency,  premier;  there  was  no 
place  within  the  gift  of  his  party  he  could  not  command; 
there  was  no  position  to  which  he  was  called  that  he  did 
not  adorn.  In  the  judgment  of  the  State,  therefore,  he  fills 
the  full  measure  of  the  nation's  invitation,  for  he  was  "  dis 
tinguished"  both  in  "civil  and  military  life. " 


Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass.  83 

I  shall  not  attempt  a  detailed  statement  of  his  eventful 
career.  As  a  soldier,  in  the  wilds  of  Michigan  resisting  the 
aggression  of  a  foreign  foe,  he  gave  enduring  proof  of  his 
patriotism  and  courage.  Assigned  to  the  civil  administra 
tion  of  that  Territory  in  1813,  for  eighteen  years  he  devoted 
his  energies  to  the  advancement  of  her  material  interests, 
and  laid  the  foundations  broad  and  deep  for  her  rapid  devel 
opment  and  future  prosperity.  While  yet  in  the  discharge 
of  the  civil  administration  of  the  Territory  he  was  sum 
moned  by  President  Jackson  to  a  seat  in  his  Cabinet  as  Sec 
retary  of  War,  the  duties  of  which  position,  augmented  by 
difficulties  with  Indian  tribes  and  the  graver  conditions 
growing  out  of  the  spirit  of  nullification,  he  discharged  with 
signal  ability. 

The  steady  yet  firm  hand  with  which  he  held  the  United 
States  military  forces  at  Charleston,  on  the  dividing  lines 
between  national  supremacy  and  State  sovereignty,  main 
taining  the  supreme  authority  of  the  one  without  infring 
ing  upon  the  integrity  of  the  other  ;  his  patriotic  appeal  to 
the  State  of  Virginia  to  use  her  influence  to  dissuade  South 
Carolina  from  a  course  fraught  with  such  disastrous  conse 
quences  to  the  "integrity  of  the  Union  and  the  cause  of 
free  government,"  evinced  the  highest  statesmanship  and 
contributed  in  no  small  degree  to  the  restoration  of  har 
monious  relations  and  the  recognition  of  the  supremacy  of 
the  lawful  authority  of  the  National  Government. 

Forced  to  resign  the  War  portfolio  in  1836  by  reason  of 
impaired  health,  he  was  appointed  minister  to  France,  in 
which  position  he  rendered  his  Government  most  illustrious 
service.  It  was  during  his  mission  to  this  court  that  Eng 
land  sought  by  a  masterly  stroke  of  diplomacy  to  secure 


84  Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass. 

the  right  of  search  on  the  high  seas,  a  right  the  American 
Government  had  persistently  denied,  under  the  pretext  of 
suppressing  the  African  slave-trade.  It  well-nigh  succeeded 
in  uniting  the  five  great  powers  of  Europe— England,  Aus 
tria,  Russia,  Prussia,  and  France — in  a  declaration  of  this 
right  and  ingrafting  it  into  the  code  of  international  law. 
It  was  a  moment  of  supreme  peril  to  the  Republic.  Eng 
land,  Austria,  and  Prussia  had  already  executed  the  treaty, 
and  its  consummation  only  required  the  approval  of  France. 
There  was  no  time  to  communicate  with  and  receive  in 
structions  from  the  home  Government ;  he  must  take  the 
responsibility  of  prompt,  decisive  action  or  the  alliance 
would  be  concluded.  He  therefore  at  once  addressed  a  com 
munication  to  the  French  minister  of  foreign  affairs  protest 
ing  in  the  most  vigorous  terms  against  the  consummation 
of  this  conspiracy.  In  the  course  of  that  communication 
he  said : 

But  the  subject  assumes  another  aspect  when  the  American  people 
are  told  by  one  of  the  parties  that  their  vessels  are  to  be  forcibly  en 
tered  and  examined  in  order  to  carry  into  effect  these  stipulations. 
Certainly  the  American  Government  does  not  believe  that  the  high 
powers,  contracting  parties  to  the  treaty,  have  any  wish  to  compel 
the  United  States  by  force  to  adapt  their  measures  to  its  provisions 
or  to  adopt  its  stipulations.  They  have  too  much  confidence  in 
their  sense  of  justice  to  force  any  such  result,  and  they  will  see  with 
pleasure  the  prompt  disavowal  made  by  yourself,  sir,  in  the  name  of 
your  country,  at  the  tribune  of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  of  any  in 
tention  of  this  nature.  But  were  it  otherwise,  and  were  it  possible 
they  might  be  deceived  in  their  confident  expectations,  that  would 
not  alter  in  one  tittle  their  course  of  action.  Their  duty  would  be 
the  same,  and  the  same  would  be  their  determination  to  fulfill  it. 
They  would  prepare  themselves,  with  apprehension  indeed,  but  with 
out  dismay,  with  regret,  but  with  firmness,  for  ene  of  those  desper 
ate  struggles  which  have  sometimes  occurred  in  the  history  of  the 


Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass.  85 

world,  where  a  just  cause  and  the  favor  of  Providence  have  given 
strength  to  comparative  weakness  and  enabled  it  to  break  down  the 
pride  of  power. 

In  closing  his  protest  he  said  :       % 

It  is  proper  for  me  to  add  that  this  communication  has  been  made 
without  any  instruction  from  the  United  States.  I  have  considered 
this  case  as  one  in  which  an  American  representative  to  a  foreign 
power  should  act  without  awaiting  the  orders  of  his  Government. 
I  have  presumed,  in  the  views  I  have  submitted  to  you,  that  I  ex 
press  the  feelings  of  the  American  Government  and  peoj)te.  If  in 
this  I  have  deceived  myself,  the  responsibility  will  be  mine.  As  soon 
as  I  can  receive  dispatches  from  the  United  States,  in  answer  to  my 
communication,  I  shall  be  enabled  to  declare  to  you  either  that  my 
conduct  has  been  approved  by  the  President  or  that  my  mission  has 
terminated. 

He  supplemented  this  protest  by  a  pamphlet  addressed  to 
the  French  people,  in  which  he  laid  bare  the  pretenses  of 
the  English  Government,  and  exposed  her  real  purpose  in 
conceiving  and  consummating  the  alliance.  It  was  a  doc 
ument  so  forceful,  so  statesmanlike,  so  comprehensive,  and 
so  illustrative  of  the  character  and  ability  of  the  man  that  1 
can  not  refrain  from  quoting  a  few  paragraphs  therefrom  : 

The  right  of  maritime  search  now  in  discussion  between  the  Brit 
ish  and  American  Governments  is  a  grave  question  interesting  to  all 
nations  to  whom  freedom  of  the  seas  is  dear.  Its  connection  with 
the  African  slave-trade  is  but  incidental,  and  can  not  affect  the  nat 
ure  of  the  question.  Great  Britain  proposes  to  push  this  point,  in 
order  to  destroy  the  yet  existing  relics  of  that  trade.  Naval  suprem 
acy  she  had  acquired  .and  naval  supremacy  she  seeks. 

It  is  impossible  that  the  intelligent  Government  and  people  of 
Great  Britain  should  shut  their  eyes  to  the  effect  of  this  claim  of  a 
right  of  search  upon  their  interests,  whatever  motives  of  philanthropy 
may  have  led  to  its  first  suggestion.  To  their  flag  it  will  give  the 
virtual  supremacy  of  the  seas.  During  twenty-five  years  the  British 


86  Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass. 

Government  has  urged  the  Government  of  the  United  States  to  con 
sent  to  this  measure.  The  application  has  been  steadily  repelled, 
and  now  this  principle  of  the  right  of  search,  in  a  time  of  profound 
peace,  heretofore  never  claimed  as  a  question  of  right,  for  the  first 
time  since  the  last  general  war  in  Europe  is  claimed  by  Great  Britain 
to  be  a  part  of  the  law  of  nations  which  she  has  both  the  right  and 
the  will  to  carry  into  effect. 

Who  made  England  the  great  prefect  of  police  of  the  ocean, 
searching  and  seizing  at  pleasure?  Once  establish  this  right  of 
search,  and  the  scenes  of  violence  which  have  checkered  the  ocean 
for  twenty  years  will  again  be  renewed.  The  nation  which  should 
tamely  submit  to  such  pretensions  would  merit,  as  surely  it  would 
receive,  the  contumely  of  the  world. 

The  American  Government  and  people  will  never  submit.  With 
them  it  is  a  question  of  life  and  death.  They  went  to  war  thirty 
years  ago  to  oppose  it,  when  comparatively  young  and  weak,  and 
now,  after  having  advanced  in  the  elements  of  power  with  a  rapid 
ity  unknown  in  human  history,  they  will  not  be  found  wanting  to 
their  duties  and  honor  in  the  day  of  trial. 

An  American  at  home  or  in  Europe  may  safely  predict  that  the 
first  man  impressed  from  a  ship  of  his  country  and  detained  with  an 
avowal  of  the  right  by  order  of  the  British  Government  will  be  the 
signal  of  war.  A  war,  too,  which  will  be  long,  bitter,  and  accom 
panied,  it  may  be,  with  many  vicissitudes ;  for  no  citizen  of  the 
United  States  can  shut  his  eyes  to  the  power  of  Great  Britain  nor  to 
the  gallantry  of  her  fleet  and  armies.  But  twice  the  Republic  has 
come  out  honorably  from  a  similar  contest,  and  with  a  just  cause  she 
would  again  hope  for  success.  At  any  rate,  she  would  try.  Even 
if  England  were  clearly  right,  as  in  our  opinion  she  is  clearly  wrong, 
she  might  forbear  much  without  any  imputation  upon  her  honor. 

She  has  won  her  way  to  distinction  by  a  thousand  feats  in  arms, 
and  what  is  her  better  title  to  renown,  by  countless  feats  in  peace, 
triumph  of  genius,  of  skill,  of  industry,  and  of  enterprise  which  have 
gained  her  a  name  that  the  proudest  may  envy,  and  that  few  can 
hope  to  equal.  She  has  given  birth  to  an  empire  in  the  West,  an 
empire  whose  extent  and  duration  it  passes  human  sagacity  even 
to  conjecture.  There  are  planted  her  laws,  her  language,  her  man 
ners,  her  institutions.  A  thousand  ties  of  interest  unite  these  kin- 


Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass.  87 

dred  people.  Let  England  cherish  this  as  her  most  glorious  work ; 
but  let  her  recollect,  too,  that  a  spirit  equal  to  her  own  animates 
the  Republic,  and  though  she  may  be  crushed,  she  will  not  be  dis 
honored. 

The  result  of  this  protest  and  appeal  arrested  the  course 
of  negotiation,  secured  the  rejection  of  the  treaty  by  France, 
thwarted  the  designs  of  the  English  Government,  averted 
the  catastrophe  of  war,  and  maintained  the  rights  and  honor 
of  the  American  Republic. 

Returning  home  from  his  foreign  mission,  he  was  every 
where  received  with  public  honors  and  demonstrations  of 
regard,  and  was  prominently  mentioned  as  the  candidate 
of  his  party  for  the  Presidency.  Another,  however,  was 
chosen.  In  1845  the  State  of  Michigan  elected  him  to  the 
United  States  Senate,  where  he'  won  fresh  laurels  in  the 
arena  of  debate  with  such  intellectual  athletes  as  Webster, 
Calhoun,  and  their  compeers.  In  the  great  debate  on  the 
Oregon  question  he  gave  utterance  to  sentiments  which 
should  be  perpetuated  in  the  hearts  of  the  American  people: 

It  pains  me,  sir,  to  hear  allusions  to  the  destruction  of  this  Gov 
ernment  and  the  dissolution  of  this  confederacy.  It  pains  me,  not 
because  they  inspire  me  with  any  fear,  but  because  we  ought  to  have 
one  unpronounceable  word,  as  the  Jews  had  of  old,  and  that  word 
is  "dissolution."  We  should  reject  the  feeling  from  our  hearts  and 
its  name  from  our  tongues. 

He  continued  to  represent  the  State  of  Michigan  in  the 
United  States  Senate  until  1848,  when  he  resigned  to  accept 
the  nomination  of  his  party  for  the  Presidency  ;  but  failing 
of  election  he  was  returned  for  the  remainder  of  his  unex- 
pired  term,  and  at  its  close,  in  1851,  re-elected  for  the  full 
term  of  six  years.  While  a  firm  believer  in  the  tenets  of 
his  party,  his  entire  Senatorial  career  was  marked  with  a 


88  Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Leiuis  Cass. 

broad  statesmanship  and  a  conscientious  discharge  of  duty  as 
he  saw  it,  from  the  performance  of  which  no  flattery  could 
seduce  and  no  power  swerve. 

Retiring  from  the  Senate  on  the  4th  of  March,  1857,  he 
assumed  the  duties  of  Secretary  of  State  in  the  Cabinet  of 
President  Buchanan,  bringing  to  the  discharge  of  its  deli 
cate  functions  the  same  comprehensive  statesmanship  which 
had  marked  the  long  course  of  his  official  life. 

The  events  of  1860  and  1861  brought  on  a  crisis  in  public 
affairs  which  forced  General  CASS  to  resign  from  the  Cabi 
net  of  President  Buchanan,  which  he  did  on  the  i2th  of 
December,  1860.  His  letter  of  resignation  and  the  Presi 
dent's  reply  will  best  serve  to  disclose  the  reason  why  he 
felt  called  upon  to  sever  his  connection  with  the  adminis 
tration: 

DEPARTMENT  OF  STATE,  December  12,  1860. 

SIR  :  The  present  alarming  crisis  in  our  national  affairs  has  en 
gaged  your  serious  consideration,  and  in  your  recent  message  you 
have  expressed  to  Congress  and  through  Congress  to  the  country  the 
views  you  have  formed  respecting  the  questions,  fraught  with  the 
most  momentous  consequences,  which  are  now  presented  to  the 
American  people  for  solution.  With  the  general  principles  laid  down 
in  that  message  I  fully  concur,  and  I  appreciate  with  warm  sympathy 
its  patriotic  appeals  and  suggestions.  What  measures  it  is  competent 
and  proper  for  the  Executive  to  adopt  under  existing  circumstances 
is  a  subject  which  has  received  your  most  careful  attention,  and  with 
the  anxious  hope,  as  I  well  know  from  having  participated  in  the  de 
liberations,  that  tranquillity  and  good  feeling  may  be  speedily  restored 
to  this  agitated  and  divided  confederacy. 

In  some  points  which  I  deem  of  vital  importance  it  has  been  my 
misfortune  to  difter  from  you. 

It  has  been  my  decided  opinion,  which  for  some  time  past  I  have 
urged  at  various  meetings  of  the  Cabinet,  that  additional  troops 
should  be  sent  to  re-enforce  the  forts  in  the  harbor  of  Charleston,  with 
a  view  to  their  better  defense,  should  they  be  attacked,  and  that  an 


Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass.  89 

armed  vessel  should  likewise  be  ordered  there  to  aid  if  necessary  in 
the  defense,  and  also,  should  it  be  required,  in  the  collection  of  the 
revenue,  and  it  is  yet  my  opinion  that  these  measures  should  be 
adopted  without  the  least  delay.  I  have  likewise  urged  the  expedi 
ency  of  immediately  removing  the  custom-house  at  Charleston  to 
one  of  the  forts  in  the  port  and  of  making  arrangements  for  the  col 
lection  of  the  duties  there  by  having  a  collector  and  other  officers 
ready  to  act  when  necessary,  so  that  when  the  office  may  become 
vacant  the  proper  authority  may  be  there  to  collect  the  duties  on  the 
part  of  the  United  States. 

I  continue  to  think  that  these  arrangements  should  be  immedi 
ately  made.  While  the  right  and  the  responsibility  of  deciding  be 
long  to  you,  it  is  very  desirable  that  at  this  perilous  juncture  there 
should  be  as  far  as  possible  unanimity  in  your  councils  with  a  view 
to  safe  and  efficient  action.  I  have,  therefore,  felt  it  my  duty  to 
tender  you  my  resignation  of  the  office  of  Secretary  of  State  and  to 
ask  your  permission  to  retire  from  that  official  association  with  your 
self  and  the  members  of  your  Cabinet  which  I  have  enjoyed  during 
almost  four  years  without  the  occurrence  of  a  single  incident  to  inter 
rupt  the  personal  intercourse  which  has  so  happily  existed. 

I  can  not  close  this  letter  without  bearing  my  testimony  to  the 
zealous  and  earnest  devotion  to  the  best  interests  of  the  country  with 
which  during  a  term  of  unexampled  trials  and  troubles  you  have 
sought  to  discharge  the  duties  of  your  high  station. 

Thanking  you  for  the  kindness  and  confidence  you  have  not  ceased 
to  manifest  toward  me,  and  with  the  expression  of  my  warmest  regard 
both  for  yourself  and  the  gentlemen  of  your  Cabinet, 

I  am,  sir,  with  great  respect,  your  obedient  servant, 

LEW.  CASS. 

To  the  PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


WASHINGTON,  December  15,  1860. 

SIR  :  I  have  received  your  resignation  of  the  office  of  Secretary  of 
State  with  surprise  and  regret.  After  we  had  passed  through  nearly 
the  whole  term  of  the  administration  with  mutual  and  cordial  friend 
ship  and  regard,  I  cherished  'the  earnest  hope  that  nothing  might 
occur  to  disturb  our  official  relations  unt;i  its  end.  You  have  decided 
differently;  and  I  have  no  right  to  r^mplain. 


90  Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Lass. 

I  must  express  my  gratification  at  your  concurrence  with  the  gen 
eral  principles  laid  down  in  my  last  message,  and  your  appreciation 
"  with  warm  sympathy  of  its  patriotic  appeals  and  suggestions."  This 
I  value  very  highly ;  and  I  rejoice  that  we  concur  in  the  opinion  that 
Congress  does  not  possess  the  power  under  the  Constitution  to  coerce 
a  State  by  force  of  arms  to  remain  in  the  confederacy. 

The  question  on  which  we  unfortunately  differ  is  that  of  ordering 
a  detachment  of  the  Army  and  Navy  to  Charleston,  and  is  correctly 
stated  in  your  letter  of  resignation.  I  do  not  intend  to  argue  this 
question.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  your  remarks  upon  the  subject  were 
heard  by  myself  and  the  Cabinet  with  all  the  respect  due  to  your 
high  position,  your  long  experience,  and  your  unblemished  character; 
but  they  failed  to  convince  us  of  the  necessity  and  propriety,  under  ex 
isting  circumstances,  of  adopting  such  a  measure.  The  Secretaries 
of  War  and  of  the  Navy,  through  whom  the  orders  must  have  issued 
to  re-enforce  the  forts,  did  not  concur  in  your  views;  and  whilst  the 
whole  responsibility  for  the  refusal  rested  upon  myself,  they  were  the 
members  of  the  Cabinet  more  directly  interested. 

You  may  have  judged  correctly  on  this  important  question,  and 
your  opinion  is  entitled  to  grave  consideration  ;  but  under  my  con 
victions  of  duty,  and  believing  as  I  do  that  no  present  necessity  exists 
for  a  resort  to  force  for  the  protection  of  the  public  property,  it  was 
impossible  for  me  to  have  risked  a  collision  of  arms  in  the  harbor  of 
Charleston,  and  thereby  have  defeated  the  reasonable  hopes  which 
I  cherish  of  the  final  triumph  of  the  Constitution  and  the  Union.  I 
have  only  to  add  that  you  will  take  with  you  into  retirement  my 
heart-felt  wishes  that  the  evening  of  your  days  may  be  prosperous  and 
happy. 

Very  respectfully,  yours, 

JAMES  BUCHANAN. 

Hon.  LEWIS  CASS. 

Believing,  as  President  Buchanan  did,  that  ' '  Congress 
does  not  possess  the  power  under  the  Constitution  to  coerce 
a  State  by  force  of  arms  to  remain  in  the  confederacy," 
it  was  perfectly  natural  that  he  should  refuse  to  re-enforce 
the  United  States  garrison  at  Charleston,  fearing  that  such 
a  step  might  provoke  hostilities  on  the  part  of  South  Caro 
lina. 


Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass.  91 

Under  his  view  of  the  Constitution,  the  only  way  to  pre 
serve  the  Union  was  to  dissuade  a  State  from  secession. 
Once  seceded,  the  Union  was  hopelessly  destroyed.  What 
ever  may  have  been  the  views  of  General  CASS  upon  this 
question,  it  is  certain  that  he  believed  it  to  be  the  duty  of 
the  Executive  of  the  National  Government  to  execute  its 
laws,  hold  its  forts,  and  collect  its  revenues,  and  to  employ 
whatever  military  or  naval  forces  might  be  necessary  to 
accomplish  such  end.  Hence  General  CASS  insisted  that 
"without  the  least  delay  additional  troops  should  be  sent 
to  re-enforce  the  forts  in  the  harbor  of  Charleston,  and  that 
armed  vessels  should  be  ordered  there  to  aid  in  their  de 
fense  and  in  the  collection  of  the  revenues. ' ' 

A  disagreement  with  the  Executive  upon  this  point 
caused  him  to  sever  his  connection  with  the  administration. 
Returning  to  his  home  in  Michigan,  he  passed  the  remain 
der  of  his  days  in  the  seclusion  of  private  life,  but  giving 
the  full  weight  of  his  counsel  and  influence  to  the  national 
cause.  In  a  speech  delivered  in  Detroit  on  the  24th  of 
April,  1861,  he  said,  among  other  things : 

I  feel  it  my  duty,  while  I  can  do  but  little,  to  do  all  I  can  to  mani 
fest  the  deep  interest  I  feel  in  the  restoration  to  peace  and  good 
order  and  submission  to  the  law  of  every  portion  of  this  glorious 
Republic.  Our  war  to-day  is  a  domestic  one,  commenced  by  and 
bringing  in  its  train  acts  which  no  right-feeling  man  can  contem 
plate  without  most  painful  regret.  In  the  mids!  of  prosperity,  with 
out  a  single  foe  to  assail  us,  without  a  single  injury  at  home  caused 
by  the  operations  of  the  Government  to  affect  us,  this  glorious  Union, 
acquired  by  the  blood  and  sacrifices  of  our  fathers,  has  been  dishon 
ored  and  rejected  by  a  portion  of  the  States  composing  it— a  union 
which  has  given  us  more  blessings  than  any  previous  government 
ever  conferred  upon  man.  Here,  thank  God,  its  ensign  floats  proudly 
and  safely,  and  no  American  can  see  its  folds  spread  out  to  the 
breeze  without  feeling  a  thrill  of  pride  in  his  heart  and  without  re- 


92  Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass. 

• 
calling  the  splendid  deeds  it  has  witnessed  in  many  a  bloody  contest 

from  the  day  of  Bunker  Hill  to  our  time. 

The  loyal  American  people  can  defend  it,  and  the  deafening  cheers 
which  meet  us  to-day  are  a  sure  pledge  that  they  will  defend  it. 
You  need  no  one  to  tell  you  what  are  the  dangers  of  your  country, 
nor  what  are  your  duties,  but  meet  and  avert  them.  There  is  but 
one  path  for  every  true  man  to  follow,  and  that  is  broad  and  plain. 
It  will  conduct  us,  not  indeed  without  trials  and  sufferings,  to  peace 
and  to  the  restoration  of  the  Union.  He  who  is  not  for  his  country 
is  against  her.  There  is  no  neutral  position  to  be  occupied.  It  is 
the  duty  of  all  zealously  to  support  the  Government  in  its  efforts  to 
bring  this  unhappy  civil  war  to  a  speedy  and  satisfactory  conclusion 
by  the  restoration  in  its  integrity  of  that  great  charter  of  freedom 
bequeathed  to  us  by  Washington  and  his  compatriots. 

In  1866,  at  the  ripe  age  of  eighty-four,  after  fifty-six  years 
of  public  service,  his  connection  with  earthly  affairs  was 
finally  severed.  But  the  memory  of  his  public  and  private 
virtues  remains  forever  to  be  cherished  by  the  State  and  em 
ulated  by  the  people.  With  a  just  pride  we  place  his  statue 
in  the  nation's  Capitol ;  his  fame  we  intrust  to  his  country 
men.  [Applause.] 


ADDRESS  OF  MR,  WHITING,  OF  MICHIGAN. 

Mr.  Speaker,  Michigan,  in  placing  in  Statuary  Hall,  at 
the  national  capital,  the  statue  of  LEWIS  CASS,  becomingly 
does  honor  to  the  memory  of  the  greatest  man  Michigan  has 
yet  given  to  history.  He  was  distinguished  as  a  soldier, 
explorer,  statesman,  savant,  and  diplomate.  He  loved  his 
State  and  his  country  and  he  gave  them  fifty-five  years  of 
uninterrupted  and  devoted  service. 


Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass.  93 

He  loved  the  old  flag,  and  he  served  it  well  in  his  young 
manhood,  in  his  prime,  and  in  old  age.  He  was  one  of  the 
greatest  and  he  was  the  last  of  our  second  generation  of 
statesmen,  sons  of  Revolutionary  sires,  who  carried  on  the 
great  Government  their  fathers  founded. 

To  LEWIS  CASS,  as  to  the  other  great  statesmen  of  his 
time,  the  Constitution  was  sacred.  He  believed  in  the 
rights  of  the  States  as  protected  by  the  Constitution,  but  he 
believed  also  in  the  majesty  of  the  Union. 

He  was  a  strong  arm  of  the  Government  in  the  great 
Northwest  at  the  dawn  of  the  century  against  the  machina 
tions  of  Aaron  Burr  and  the  soldiery  of  Great  Britain. 

He  was  Andrew  Jackson's  right  hand  in  suppressing  nul 
lification  in  South  Carolina.  As  American  minister  to 
France  he  defeated  the  ratification  of  the  quintuple  treaty, 
involving  Great  Britain's  right  of  search  on  the  high  seas, 
and  in  the  last  days  of  his  long  life  he  threw  his  great  influ 
ence  against  secession. 

He  was  the  last  survivor  of  the  great  men  who  framed 
the  Missouri  compromise  and  averted  war  ;  but  when  war 
came  he  was  for  the  restoration  of  the  Union. 

He  resigned  from  James  Buchanan's  Cabinet  because  the 
President  did  not  take  that  course  with  South  Carolina 
that  Andrew  Jackson  took  a  quarter  of  a  century  before. 

He  gave  expression  to  his  ideas  of  the  suppression  of  the 
rebellion  when  he  sent  word  to  Secretary  Cameron  : 

Do  not  defend  Washington  ;  do  not  put  batteries  on  Georgetown 
Heights ;  but  shove  your  troops  directly  into  Virginia  and  quarter 
them  there. 

LEWIS  CASS  participated  actively  in  the  thrilling  events 
of  half  a  century  of  national  history.  But  Michigan  cher- 


94  Acceptance  of  tJie  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass. 

ishes  his  name  most  closely  for  the  fostering  care  that  he 
bestowed  upon  her  during  her  years  of  infancy.  He  was 
governor  of  Michigan  for  twenty  years.  That  venerable 
and  noble  Democrat,  Alpheus  Felch,  who  was  contempora 
neous  with  CASS  in  public  life,  says  of  his  administration : 

These  years  constitute  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  Michigan.  The 
executive  powers  of  the  Government  have  never  been  more  assid 
uously  or  more  successfully  exercised  in  building  up  a  new  country, 
or  in  promoting  the  growth  of  agricultural,  mechanical,  or  educa 
tional  interests. 

*  *  *  In  the  administration  of  Indian  affairs  General  CASS 
was  most  fortunate.  He  early  succeeded  in  securing  the  confidence 
and  respect  of  the  Indians.  The  justice  and  kindness  of  his  deal 
ings  did  much  to  pacify  and  quiet  them  and  dispel  the  fears  of  the 
settlers  of  hostile  attacks.  *  *  *  His  administration  as  gov 
ernor  was  one  of  decided  success,  and  while  it  secured  great  results 
to  the  Territory,  it  bound  him  to  the  people  by  the  strongest  ties  of 
respect  and  love.  He  well  deserved  the  rewards  due  to  a  faithful, 
honest,  and  able  public  servant.  The  statue  to  be  placed  in  the  Cap 
itol  is  a  just  tribute  to  his  memory.  Michigan  honors  herself  in  hon 
oring  her  most  illustrious  statesman.  . 

I  may  well  conclude  by  adding  to  this  review  of  LEWIS 
CASS'S  services  to  his  State  the  distinguished  Judge  Ross 
Wilkins's  epitome  of  his  services  to  his  country.  Judge 
Wilkins  said: 

Identified  with  the  State  since  the  war  of  1812,  Michigan  claims 
him  for  her  own,  but  the  national  record  can  not  be  accurate  without 
the  frequent  recurrence  of  his  name  in  the  annals  of  the  United 
States  for  more  than  sixty-five  years — from  the  treason  of  Burr  to 
the  insurrection  of  1860.  He,  by  timely  action,  exploded  the  one, 
and  in  his  eightieth  year  aided  in  giving  the  death-blow  to  the  other. 

[Applause.] 


Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass.  95 


ADDRESS  OF  MR,  CUTCHEON. 

Mr.  Speaker,  it  is  not  my  purpose  at  this  late  hour  to  in 
dulge  in  any  extended  remarks  upon  the  life  and  character 
of  LEWIS  CASS.  Michigan's  first  contribution  to  the  Na 
tional  Statuary  Hall  is  made  this  day,  and  whoever  may  be 
the  subject  of  the  second  there  can  be  no  doubt  but  that 
L-EwiS  CASS  should  be  the  first  contribution  from  that  State. 

It  is  a  remarkable  fact,  sir,  that  the  two  men  who  domi 
nated  the  politics  of  the  State  of  Michigan  for  a  period  of 
nearly  seventy  years,  from  1813  to  1880,  were  born  in  the 
same  State  of  New  Hampshire,  and  within  a  few  miles  of 
each  other  in  adjoining  counties.  I  refer  to  LEWIS  CASS 
and  Zachariah  Chandler.  Mr.  Chandler  was  the  junior  of 
Mr.  CASS  by  about  thirty  years,  and  followed  him  in  his 
removal,  at  about  the  same  age,  from  New  Hampshire  to 
the  State  of  Michigan. 

I  shall  not  attempt,  Mr.  Speaker,  to  draw  any  compari 
son  between  the  characters  of  these  two  men.  They  were 
opposites  in  many  respects.  General  CASS  was  a  conserv 
ative  among  conservatives,  while  Chandler  was  a  radical 
among  radicals.  CASS  was  a  Democrat  in  politics,  while 
Chandler  was  a  Whig  and  a  Republican.  CASS  entered  pub 
lic  life  almost  as  soon  as  he  reached  manhood.  Chandler 
remained  a  merchant  until  past  middle  life.  But  these  two 
men,  so  different  in  their  characters  and  in  their  lives,  suc 
cessively  were  the  master  spirits  of  the  political  parties  of 
the  Peninsular  State. 


96  Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Leivis  Cass. 

I  desire  to  speak,  sir,  for  a  moment,  in  regard  to  the  statue 
itself  which  Michigan  to-night  tenders  to  the  nation. 

And,  first,  in  regard  to  it  as  a  portrait.  It  was  my  for 
tune  as  a  young  man,  in  the  last  years  of  his  life,  frequently 
to  see  General  CASS,  as  a  young  man  sees  and  looks  up  to  a 
man  of  a  past  generation.  I  can  say,  Mr.  Speaker,  that  the 
likeness  is  a  most  excellent  one.  The  countenance,  the 
head,  and  pose  of  the  body,  everything  in  regard  to  the 
statue,  presents  before  you  a  likeness  of  General  LEWIS  CASS 
as  I  saw  him  in  his  life-time.  Of  coiirse  there  is  in  it  more 
of  strength  and  vigor  than  he  exhibited  in  those  declining 
days,  for  he  was  already  well  past  seventy  years,  the  usual 
allotted  span  of  life,  before  I  saw  him.  Secondly,  as  a  work 
of  art.  I  do  not  profess  to  be  a  connoisseur  of  the  art  of  the 
sculptor.  I  do  not  know  what  others  may  think  of  this 
portraiture  of  General  CASS  ;  but  as  for  myself,  when  I  en 
ter  Statuary  Hall,  there  is  no  figure  there  that  strikes  me 
more  impressively  and  as  more  worthy  of  a  place  in  this 
Pantheon  of  the  Republic  than  the  statue  of  LEWIS  CASS. 
It  is  the  likeness  of  a  man  of  force.  It  has  a  vigor  which 
speaks  of  positive  opinions  and  of  strong  convictions.  It  is 
the  very  embodiment  of  his  famous  alliteration,  ' '  fifty-four 
forty  or  fight."  It  reminds  one  of  the  words  of  Tennyson: 

That  tower  of  strength 
Which  stood  four-square  to  all  the  winds  that  blew. 

In  the  few  further  moments  allotted  to  me  I  shall  not  speak 
of  him  in  political  capacities  as  legislator,  marshal,  gov 
ernor,  foreign  minister,  Senator,  Secretary  of  State,  or  Pres 
idential  candidate.  Others  have  amplified  upon  these.  I 
shall  speak  of  him  in  the  less  conspicuous  aspect  of  his 
many-sided  character — that  of  a  soldier,  or,  I  should  say,  a 


Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass.  97 

military  man.  And  here  let  me  say  that  in  the  State  which 
he  served  so  well,  so  long,  and  so  honorably  he  was  always 
known  as  General  CASS.  He  was  Senator ;  he  was  gov 
ernor  ;  he  was  Commissioner  of  Indian  Affairs  ;  he  was  for 
eign  minister,  but  we  always  spoke  of  him  as  General. 
General  CASS  was  a  volunteer  soldier,  and  he  was  the  son 
of  a  volunteer  soldier.  His  father,  Capt.  Jonathan  Cass,  of 
Exeter,  New  Hampshire,  enlisted  as  a  private  soldier  in  the 
army  of  the  Revolution  immediately  after  the  first  clash  of 
arms  ;  and  it  perhaps  may  be  that  I  have  an  added  interest 
in  him  and  in  this  ceremony  from  the  fact  that  my  grand 
father  marched  in  the  same  battalion  with  Jonathan  Cass 
under  the  command  of  Col.  Andrew  McCleary  to  the  battle 
of  Bunker  Hill.  He  was  reared  as  the  son  of  a  soldier. 
While  yet  a  boy  he  engaged  in  the  profession  of  teaching — 
as  so  many  of  our  great  men  have  done — in  the  State  of 
Delaware. 

Following  this  he  marched  in  the  advance  of  empire  to 
wards  the  great  West,  and  found  himself  in  that  modern 
mother  of  Presidents,  the  State  of  Ohio,  at  Marietta.  Here 
he  engaged  briefly  in  the  practice  of  the  law,  was  elected 
to  the  legislature  of  the  State,  and  was  appointed  United 
States  marshal,  in  which  office  he  continued  from  1806 
until  1813. 

In  1812,  anticipating  war  with  Great  Britain,  the  then  ad 
ministration  commenced  the  work  of  putting  our  Canadian 
frontier  in  a  condition  of  defense.  Several  regiments  of 
volunteers  were  raised  in  the  State  of  Ohio  for  the  protec 
tion  of  the  line  of  the  Detroit  River.  Among  these  marched 
young  CASS,  then  thirty  years  of  age,  as  colonel  of  the 
Third  Ohio  Volunteers.  He  joined  the  force  of  General 
H.  Mis.  145 7 


98  Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass. 

Hull  at  Dayton,  Ohio,  and  marched  through  a  nearly  un 
broken  wilderness  to  Detroit,  which  was  reached  on  July 
9,  1812,  and  which,  unknown  to  him,  was  to  be  his  future 
home  and  the  place  of  his  burial. 

General  Hull  being  ordered  to  cross  into  Canada,  Colonel 
CASS  was  the  first  of  the  American  force  to  put  foot  upon 
Canadian  soil.  He  was  ordered  by  General  Hull  to  make 
an  advance  with  his  regiment  in  the  direction  of  Fort  Mai 
den  and  feel  the  force  of  the  enemy.  He  encountered  them 
at  the  crossing  of  the  Canards,  or,  as  it  is  called,  ' ' Aux  Can 
ards,"  about  five  miles  from  Fort  Maiden,  and  there  the  first 
blood  of  the  war  of  1812  was  spilled  under  the  command  and 
in  the  presence  of  General  CASS.  I  will  not  attempt  at  this 
hour  to  go  into  details.  Instead  of  advancing  and  captur 
ing  Fort  Maiden,  as  CASS  urged  General  Hull,  the  Detroit 
River  was  recrossed,  apparently  without  reason,  .and  the 
British  commander,  General  Brock,  with  a  small  force  of 
about  a  thousand  British  soldiers  and  Indians,  was  permit 
ted  to  cross  that  broad  and  rapid  stream  in  the  face  of  the 
superior  force  of  General  Hull  without  opposition.  Then 
followed  the  surrender  of  Detroit,  which  has  always  been 
considered,  in  Michigan  at  least,  a  pusillanimous  affair  and 
a  blot  upon  her  history.  It  is  said,  I  know  not  how  truly, 
that  so  indignant  was  young  CASS  at  this  disgrace  that, 
rather  than  surrender  his  sword  into  the  hands  of  the  en 
emy,  he  broke  it  in  two.  He  then  hastened  to  Washing 
ton  to  lay  before  the  administration  the  history  of  this  first 
military  disaster  of  the  war  of  1812.  General  Hull  was  tried 
and  convicted  of  cowardice  and  sentenced  to  death,  but  the 
sentence  was  never  executed,  and  he  died  in  peace  long 
years  afterward  in  his  New  England  home.  The  contro- 


Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass.  99 

versy  will  never  be  settled  whether  he  was  a  coward  or 
a  scapegoat.  In  the  spring  of  1813  Colonel  CASS  was  ex 
changed  and  appointed  colonel  of'  the  Twenty-seventh 
United  States  Infantry,  and  soon  afterwards  was  made  a 
brigadier-general. 

He  rejoined  the  American  forces  under  General  W.  H. 
Harrison  at  Senecaville,  Ohio,  and  marched  with  him  to 
Lake  Erie.  The  way  to  Canada  had  but  just  been  opened 
by  Perry's  victory,  announced  to  the  country  in  the  laconic 
words,  "We  have  met  the  enemy  and  they  are  ours." 
General  Harrison  debarked  his  forces  at  Sisters'  Island,  near 
the  mouth  of  the  Detroit  River,  and  moved  upon  Fort  Mai 
den,  only  to  find  it  abandoned  and  dismantled.  General 
CASS  participated  in  the  battle  of  the  Thames,  where  Gen 
eral  Proctor  was  o'vercome,  his  army  routed,  and  a  large 
proportion  of  them  taken  prisoners.  In  this  action  General 
CASS  acted  as  volunteer  aid  to  General  Harrison,  and  dis 
tinguished  himself  for  his  intrepidity.  General  Harrison 
in  his  report  of  the  battle  of  the  Thames  spoke  of  General 
CASS  as  "an  officer  of  the  highest  promise."  Upon  the 
close  of  the  war,  or  rather  before  the  close  of  the  war,  in 
October,  1813,  General  CASS  was  appointed  governor  of 
Michigan,  which  had  been,  partly  at  least,  through  his 
efforts,  redeemed  from  the  domination  of  a  hostile  power. 
After  serving  as  governor  of  the  Territory  of  Michigan, 
then  an  empire  in  extent,  from  1813  to  1831,  during  which 
time  he  acted  as  Commissioner  of  Indian  Affairs,  negotiat 
ing  many  treaties  and  visiting  all  parts  of  his  domain,  he 
was  called  into  the  Cabinet  of  General  Jackson  as  Minister 
of  War.  It  had  been  my  purpose  to  speak  somewhat  at 
length  in  regard  to  his  policy  in  that  capacity  as  regards 
the  defenses  of  the  country. 


100  Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass. 

In  the  year  1836  he  submitted  to  Congress  an  elaborate 
and  able  report  on  the  subject  of  national  defenses,  accom 
panied  by  a  more  exhaustive  scheme  of  fortification  by 
Colonel  Totten,  then  Chief  of  Engineers. 

From  the  report  of  General  CASS  I  make  the  following 
extracts.  He  says: 

And  I  would  suggest  that  the  works  which  are  determined  on  be 
pushed  with  all  reasonable  vigor,  that  our  whole  coast  may  be  p'aced 
beyond  the  reach  of  injury  and  insult,  as  soon  as  a  just  regard  to 
circumstances  will  permit.  No  objections  can  arise  to  this  proced 
ure  on  the  ground  of  expense,  because  whatever  system  may  be  ap 
proved  by  the  legislature,  nothing  will  be  gained  by  delaying  its 
completion  beyond  the  time  necessary  to  the  proper  execution  of  the 
work.  In  fact,  the  cost  will  be  greater  the  longer  we  are  employed 
in  it,  not  only  for  obvious  reasons,  arising  out  of  general  superintend 
ence  and  other  contingencies,  but  because  accidents  are  liable  to 
happen  to  unfinished  work,  and  the  business  upon  them  is  deranged 
by  the  winter,  when  they  must  be  properly  secured;  and  the  season 
for  resuming  labor  always  finds  some  preparations  necessary  which 
would  not  have  been  required  had  no  interruption  happened. 

But  the  political  considerations  which  urge  forward  this  great  ob 
ject  are  entitled  to  much  more  weight.  When  once  completed  we 
should  feel  secure.  There  is  probably  not  a  man  in  the  country  who 
did  not  look  with  some  solicitude  during  the  past  season  at  our  com 
paratively  defenseless  condition  when  the  issue  of  our  discussions 
with  France  was  uncertain,  and  who  did  not  regret  that  our  prepara 
tions  during  the  long  interval  of  peace  we  have  enjoyed  had  not 
kept  pace  with  our  growth  and  importance.  We  have  now  this  les 
son  to  add  to  our  other  experience  :  Adequate  security  is  not  only 
due  from  the  Government  to  the  country,  and  the  conviction  of  it  is 
not  only  satisfactory,  but  the  knowledge  of  its  existence  can  not  fail 
to  produce  an  influence  upon  other  nations  as  well  iq  the  advent  of 
war  itself  as  in  the  mode  of  conducting  it.  If  we  are  prepared  to 
attack  and  resist,  the  chances  of  being  compelled  to  embark  in  hostilities 
will  be  diminished  much  in  proportion  to  our  preparation.  An  unpro 
tected  commerce,  a  defenseless  coast,  and  a  military  marine  wholly 
inadequate  to  the  wants  of  our  service  would  indeed  hald  out  strong 


Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass.  101 

inducements  to  other  nations  to  convert  trifling  pretexts  into  serious 
causes  of  quarrel. 

Out  of  the  past  of  more  than  half  a  century  comes  this 
voice  of  one  of  our  greatest  statesmen  admonishing  us  of 
our  dereliction,  and  I  commend  now  these  words  to  the 
American  Congress  and  to  the  American  people:  "If  we 
are  prepared,"  says  General  CASS,  "to  attack  and  to  resist, 
the  chances  of  being  compelled  to  embark  in  hostilities  will 
be  diminished  much  in  proportion  to  our  preparation."  I 
also  heartily  commend  to  those  who  have  charge  of  ap 
propriation  and  expenditure  of  money  for  the  construction 
of  public  works  the  following  from  the  same  report.  He 
says: 

Secondly.  I  think  that  when  the  plan  of  a  work  has  been  ap 
proved  by  Congress  and  its  construction  authorized  the  whole  appro 
priation  should  be  made  at  once,  to  be  drawn  from  the  Treasury  in 
annual  installments  to  be  fixed  by  the  law.  This  mode  of  appro 
priation  would  remedy  much  of  the  inconvenience  which  has  been 
felt  for  years  in  this  branch  of  the  public  service.  The  uncertainty 
respecting  the  appropriations  annually  deranges  the  business,  and 
the  delay  .which  biennially  takes  place  in  the  passage  of  the  neces 
sary  law  reduces  the  alternate  season  of  operations  to  a  compara 
tively  short  period.  An  exact  inquiry  into  the  effect  which  the  pres 
ent  system  of  making  the  appropriations  has  had  upon  the  expense 
of  the  works  would  probably  exhibit  an  amount  far  greater  than  is 
generally  anticipated. 

But,  Mr.  Speaker,  I  must  close.  The  last  public  act  of 
General  CASS  was  to  resign  from  the  Cabinet  of  James  Buch 
anan  because  his  administration  refused  to  defend  the  flag 
upon  Fort  Sumter  against  incipient  rebellion.  That  act 
won  anew  for  General  CASS  the  heart  of  Michigan,  which 
had  been  in  part  alienated  by  the  compromise  measures  of 
1850-' 54.  Though  almost  eighty  years  of  age,  he  still  had 


102  Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass. 

fire  enough  in  his  heart  to  cause  him  to  resent  that  action  on 
the  part  of  his  executive  chief.  I  thank  God,  Mr.  Speaker, 
that  he  lived  long  enough  to  see  that  flag  restored  upon 
Sumter  and  over  every  foot  of  American  soil.  The  storm 
was  past  ;  the  sun  again  shone  out  unclouded  ;  the  Union 
that  he  loved  and  for  which  he  had  fought  was  restored, 
and  he  saw  her  about  to  enter  upon  her  second  century 
redeemed,  glorified,  resplendent,  secure.  [Applause.] 

The  SPEAKER  pro  tempore.  The  time  assigned  for  these 
exercises  expired  some  ten  minutes  ago,  but  the  Chair  sug 
gests  that  perhaps  some  arrangement  can  be  made  by  which 
the  gentleman  from  Michigan  [Mr.  Allen],  who  is  next 
on  the  list,  can  be  heard. 

Mr.  POSEY.  I  ask  unanimous  consent  that  the  time  for 
this  evening's  session  be  extended  for  ten  minutes,  and  that 
the  gentleman  from  Michigan  [Mr.  Allen]  be  allowed  to 
proceed  now  for  that  time. 

There  was  no  objection,  and  it  was  so  ordered. 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  ALLEN,  OF  MICHIGAN, 

Mr.  Speaker,  it  is  a  striking  commentary  on  the  rapidity 
of  the  age  in  which  we  live  that  scarcely  an  hour  can  be 
given  to  the  consideration  of  the  character  of  the  man  whose 
impress  for  good  upon  this  great  country  equals  that  of  any 
other  statesman  of  his  day.  But  time  moves  rapidly,  great 
interests  press  heavily,  and  CASS,  who  did  so  much  to  make 
this  nation  mighty,  and  whose  life  will  always  be  an  exam 
ple  for  the  young  men  and  the  patriotic  men  of  this  conn- 


Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass.  103 

try,  can  have  only  a  brief  hour  for  his  virtues  to  be  spoken 
of  in  this  hall  of  the  people. 

LEWIS  CASS  was  governor  of  the  Northwest  Territory 
from  1813  to  1831 — nearly  twenty  years.  He  never  was 
elected  to  an  office  by  the  people.  He  held  his  office,  of 
governor  by  appointment  from  the  President  of  the  United 
States.  In  1831  he  was  called  to  the  Cabinet  of  Andrew 
Jackson  as  Secretary  of  War.  His  first  appearance  in 
public  in  the  city  of  Washington,  fifty-six  years  ago  this 
month,  was  to  address  a  temperance  meeting  in  the  Hall  of 
the  House  of  Representatives,  where  his  statue  now  stands. 
LEWIS  CASS,  who  never  drank  a  drop  of  intoxicating  liquor 
in  his  life,  at  that  early  day,  surrounded  as  he  was  by  the 
great  men  of  the  nation,  very  few  of  whom  were  not  ad- 

o  •* 

dieted  to  their  cups,  used  this  striking  language  : 

No  man  can  indulge  in  this  habit  with  impunity,  and  there  is  only 
one  way  by  which  all  danger  may  be  avoided,  that  is,  by  entire  in 
terdiction. 

Those  were  brave  words  to  be  uttered  at  that  time  in  this 
city,  and  they  indicate  the  moral  character  and  stamina  of 
LEWIS  CASS,  which  stood  him  in  hand  at  all  times  and  under 
all  circumstances.  He  showed  the  same  sterling  loyalty  to 
his  convictions  by  always  refusing  to  meet  with  the  Senate 
01:  the  Lord's  day,  believing  it  contrary  to  the  divine  com 
mand  to  "remember  the  Sabbath  day  to  keep  it  holy." 

His  residence  abroad  for  several  years  made  him  more 
intensely  American.  He  believed  that  the  people  of  this 
country  were  immeasurably  superior  in  happiness  to  any 
nation  upon  the  face  of  the  globe,  and  he  was  not  afraid  to 
enunciate  his  belief.  He  had  an  American  policy  ;  he  be- 


104  Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass. 

lieved  in  an  American  policy  ;  and  he  uttered  it  in  words 
like  these  : 

This  country  could  lose  nothing  at  home  or  abroad  by  establish 
ing  and  maintaining  an  American  policy — a  policy  decided  in  its 
spirit,  moderate  in  its  tone,  and  just  in  its  objects — proclaimed  and 
supported  firmly. 

These  are  good  words  to  speak  now  ;  they  are  as  true  now 
as  they  were  then,  and  they  will  always  be  true  so  long  as 
this  nation  is  worthy  of  its  own  respect  or  the  respect  of 
the  nations  of  the  world. 

General  CASS  was  not  only  an  American  but  he  believed  in 
the  American  Union.  He  never  would  harbor  the  thought 
of  a  dissolution  of  the  Union  ;  and  his  voice  was  always 
raised  upon  the  side  of  the  Union  in  the  Senate,  upon  the 
side  of  the  Constitution  ;  and  among  other  strong  words  in 
the  debates  in  those  days  he  used  these: 

It  pains  me,  sir,  to  hear  allusions  to  the  destruction  of  this  Gov 
ernment  and  the  dissolution  of  this  confederacy.  We  ought  to  have 
one  unpronounceable  word,  as  the  Jews  of  old  had,  and  that  word 
is  "  dissolution."  We  should  reject  the  feeling  from  our  hearts  and 
its  name  from  our  tongues.  Plots  and  insurrections  have  no  place 
in  this  country.  We  have  nothing  to  fear  but  ourselves. 

Mr.  CASS  was  no  friend  to  slavery,  but  he  knew  that  slav 
ery  was  a  constitutional  institution,  and  he  did  not  pro 
pose  to  disturb  it  except  in  a  constitutional  way.  His  two 
fold  object  was  to  preserve  the  nation  and  to  see  to  it  that  * 
no  institution  which  the  Constitution  sanctioned  should  be 
torn  away  by  unconstitutional  measures.  And  this  consti 
tuted  one  of  the  strongest  marks  of  his  statesmanship  and 
of  his  power. 

General  CASS  never  believed  that  the  Union  could  be  law 
fully  dissolved,  and  when  the  fiery  ordeal  came  he  was 


Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass.  105 

found  upon  the  side  of  the  Union.  His  quick  military  in 
tuition  discovered  the  road  to  success,  and  in  the  first 
months  of  the  war  he  did  not  hesitate  to  give  his  advice  to 
the  Government,  although  he  was  then  a  private  citizen. 
Among  other  things  he  said  to  Secretary  Cameron  these 
words : 

Don't  defend  Washington;  don't  put  batteries  on  Georgetown 
Heights ;  but  shove  your  troops  directly  into  Virginia  and.  quarter 
them  there. 

What  CASS  urged  should  be  done  in  the  first  months  of 
the  war  had  to  be  done  before  the  rebellion  could  be  sub 
dued. 

Michigan  is  the  home  of  two  millions  of  people.  There 
you  will  find  upon  every  hill-top  the  school-house;  you  will 
find  on  almost  every  square  mile  a  church.  That  great  and 
mighty  and  intelligent  Commonwealth  has  grown  upon  the 
sure  foundation  stones  that  LEWIS  CASS,  among  the  other 
early  and  few  pioneers  of  the  great  Northwest,  laid. 

He  was  a  Democrat  in  the  broad  sense  of  that  word.  He 
believed,  however,  that  Democracy  could  only  flourish  where 
it  was  founded  upon  intelligence.  Consequently  throughout 
all  his  long  public  life,  under  all  circumstances,  he  advo 
cated  the  education  of  the  people  as  the  only  safety  for  a 
republican  form  of  government. 

Among  the  mighty  men  who  have  lived  in  this  country 
LEWIS  CASS  is  the  peer  of  any  one  of  them.  He  stands  with 
Seward  ;  he  stands  with  the  best  men  and  the  best  thinkers 
of  this  nation  ;  and  it  is  with  no  small  degree  of  pride  that 
I  to-night  am  permitted  to  recall  to  the  present  generation 
a  few  of  the  attributes  of  that  noble  man  who  belonged  to 
the  strong  generation  now  passed  away.  He  was  so  wise 
H.  Mis.  145 8 


106  Acceptance  of  the  Statue  of  Lewis  Cass. 

that,  unlike  scores  and  hundreds  of  statesmen  in  this  coun 
try,  he  avoided  the  abyss  that  finally  swamped  their  reputa 
tion  and  destroyed  their  influence,  because  he  stood  firmly 
for  the  union  of  the  States. 

We  in  the  sweet  name  of  charity  forgive  all  south  of  Ma 
son  and  Dixon's  line  who  went  with  their  section,  but  the 
time  has  never  come,  and  never  will,  when  a  man  who 
lived  in  the  Northern  States  and  proved  himself  disloyal  to 
the  flag  can  have  forgiveness.  LEWIS  CASS  stood  for  the 
Union;  and  I  thank  God  that  he  in  his  last  days  was  per 
mitted  to  see  the  flag  again  floating  over  a  peaceful  and 
powerful  country;  that  his  dying  eyes  beheld  the  banner  of 
the  Union  that  he  loved  floating  over  the  reunited  States, 
never  again  to  be  broken.  [Applause.] 

Mr.  CHIPMAN.  I  now  ask  a  vote  on  the  adoption  of  the 
resolutions. 

The  resolutions  were  unanimously  adopted. 


• 
. 


E. 

* 


5 


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